
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


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L 0 V E 

AND ITS 

HIDDEN HISTORY. 

A BOOK FOR 

MAN, WOMAN, WIVES, HUSBANDS, 

AND FOR THE LOVING AND 


THE UNLOVED: 

THE H E A. R T-R E E T, PINING ONES. 




By THE COUNT DE ST. LJSON. r - ; . 




Hearts'! breaking hearts'! 

Who speaks of breaking hearts ? 


JF0urtfy lEtiitton, cnttrclg Iftebmttcn. 


BOSTON: 

WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

BANNER OF LIGHT OFFICE, 

158 Washington Street. 

NEW YORK AGENTS — THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 


119 Nassau Street. 

18 G 9. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
P. N. STRONG, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 


Rockwell Sc Churchill, Printers and Stereotypers, 
122 Washington Street, Boston. 


TO MY READERS. 




What a world is this we live in! What storms and tempests, 
tornadoes and bitter, wintry blasts sweep across the souls of us 
poor sons and daughters of the Infinite ! Only threescore years 
and ten our allotted span of life, and yet how many ages of cruel 
suffering and heart-racking agony are crowded within the leaves 
of its brief volume ! What does it all mean ? Are we foredoomed 
to drink the bitter cup in consequence of some fearful lege majeste 
in foregone ages ? Or, are all these bitternesses we endure but the 
chastening rod of Him who wields the destinies of the all that is ? 
Ah, how often the heart-reft children of sorrow — the sad-hearted 
pilgrims of love — ask themselves and the unlistening winds these 
questions ! Is there no answer ? Are all of us to cry in vain for 
a response to these vital askings ? I think not; for it seems to me 
that much of what we suffer — in and from the heart, I mean — is 
the result of blindness, — almost wilful blindness to many things, 
laws, principles, easily understood, and which, if obeyed, bring 
happiness in their train. In this book and its sequel I have en¬ 
deavored to so clear up the path, that there need be no more mis¬ 
takes in matters of the heart and affections. 

In the Sequel * to this volume I have said many things of vital 

* Before this volume was fairly off the press, many of the ladies of Boston who had 
heard that I was publishing it, called on me and suggested an enlargement of the vol¬ 
ume, — that I would write concerning “ Love and its Hidden Mystery," as well as its 
“ Hidden History; ” that I should state the great magnetic law; teach woman how to 



IV 


TO MY HEADERS. 


consequence to all who love, are loved, would love, be loved, and 
who are unloved, and I believe that in this, but especially in the se¬ 
quel, I have so clearly revealed the laws of love, that in the future 
there shall be more joy and happiness than sorrow and regret, both 
within and without the pale of marriage. 

Respectfully, 

THE AUTHOR. 

/ 

exert her integral will and magnetic power; how to preserve her physical charms; to 
improve them; to beautify the personal characteristics; to render the eyes brilliant, 
sparkling, flashing, magnetic; to ornament the lashes, brows, chin, cheeks, hair, and 

i 

teeth; how to make and use the most beneficial and beauty-giving preparations for 
hair, lips, cheeks, hands, nails, teeth, skin, — in short, the whole art of rendering the 
person charming, magnetic, and beautiful, and how to preserve that beauty till very 
late in life. This I consented to do; but it was too late to occupy a place in this volume. c ' 
It is, therefore, published separately; and, as it is wholly indispensable to every reader V 
of the present volume, it may be had by addressing the lady for whom “Woman, Affec- ^ 
tion; or, Love and its Hidden Mystery, the Laws of Beauty, Methods of its Culture and ^ 
Retainment, with a Statement of the great Magnetic Law of Female Attractive Power, V 

and how to gain and cultivate it,” was especially written, Miss Carrie Chute, care of 

k / 

Box 3,352, Boston, Mass. Price, sixty cents; postage, free. 

All persons who desire to correspond with the author of these volumes, upon all or 
any of the matters contained therein, can do so, and the response will be prompt and to 
the point. Address, care of the above lady and post-office box. 


Love and its Hidden History. 


What is Loye ? — Everybody. 

It is—it is—well, I don’t know what it is ! — Everybody Else. 


•But this, after all we do know, that — 

i 

Love is a glorious thing for old and young, 

-for high and low, 

-for all below,— 

The Mecca of the heart all bards have sung. 

The poor are rich if love with them abide; 

The rich are poor if he dwell not with them; 

The monarch oft would give his diadem 
For such sweet company at even-tide. 

Love is a glorious thing, I do rehearse; 

A burning fount more potent than the god 
That rules the day, and vivifies the clod: — 

It is the spirit of the universe — 

Th’ attraction by Eternal Wisdom given, 

To keep souls in their orbits, both in earth and heaven. 

All this is truth. Life bereft of love were of little worth. But 
what is love ? Ought any power other than the Infinite attempt 
to answer? We all, at times, feel its force, and recognize its 
power, and yet not one of us really knows what this mysterious 
tiling consists in. Some of us try to synthetize, others to ana¬ 
lyze it — fruitlessly ; and others still tell us that there are hundreds 
of distinct feelings and attractions, common to the human breast, 
all of which we call by separate names ; and these fortif}'' their 
notions by triumphantly pointing to apparent proofs of their cor¬ 
rectness, and ask, “ Is the love I feel toward my little pet dog, of 
the same species as that which I bear toward my friend, my par¬ 
ents, acquaintances, and my children, wife, husband,— God? “ Of 





6 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


course not. These various forms are not identical, and never can 
be. To which some who entertain different, if not higher, con¬ 
ceptions, might answer, Love is a tree ; its roots are in matter — 

* 

body, and underlie and create the amative instinct; its limbs 
reach out, variously, to dogs, horses, children, friends, parents ;— 
its trunk is the wifely, husbandly ; and its toji or crown stretches 
up to heaven and to God! Love, in another aspect, is perfect 
health. Phrenologists generally, Buchanan excepted, affirm in 
substance that the thing-we call love is but lust refined; that its 
great function is the propagative ; and that its cerebral organ lies 
at the base of the lower brain; in other words, they take the root 
for the tree itself. They are mistaken. 

Since the first three editions of this work appeared, of which edi¬ 
tions nearly nine thousand were sold, much new light has been 
thrown upon the subjects of Love and Passion, and they have even 
been formulated mathematically. Science now weighs a human pas¬ 
sion as readily as she does planetary bodies. She resolves all things 
into heat and magnetism, declares these are but modes of motion, 
that motion is the divine mode of existence, and itself the Grand 
Idea. That my readers may have some notion of the advance 
made, I submit the following sketch of two lectures on the sub¬ 
ject by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, — the ablest woman I ever listened 
to, and I have heard a hundred. I cut it from the “ Boston 
Post.” 


“ POLARITY ; A STUDY OF SEX. BY JULIA WARD HOWE. 

“ Reported for the Boston Post. 

“Mrs. Julia Ward Howe concluded a course of two lectures, 
under the auspices of the New England Women’s Club, at Chick- 
ering’s Hall last evening, with an essay upon the subject, ‘ Polar¬ 
ity ; a Study of Sex.’ The hall was well filled with a select 
and discriminating audience, who gave the speaker their closest 
attention throughout. The lecture was one of considerable length, 
occupying about an hour of rapid reading, and in the brief synopsis 
given below we find it impossible to convey to the* reader so ade¬ 
quate an idea as we could wish of its completeness and beauty as 
a literary and philosophic production. 

“ Mrs. Howe began by saying that ‘ Polarity,’ as she supposed 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


7 


it, was the first step out of the indifference of matter, the earliest 
agent in the differentiation. Magnetism, chemical affinity, cohe¬ 
sive force and gravitation she took to be the various manifestations 
of this one force resident in all matter, whose derivation she would 
not at that moment consider. She had not been able to find a com¬ 
prehensive definition of the quality which this word represents, but 
it seemed to stand for the tendency, universal in nature, of one 
set of things to one mode of action, and of another to another. 
The two opposite tendencies resided also in the same thing, at 
least in bodies of entire homogeneity, which would be simply 
unity if the two tendencies did not make them two. This princi¬ 
ple in matter, of one as to principle and many as to force, is 
already well known. This active tendency she defined as some¬ 
thing distinct from a supposable inertia or indifference, and could 
only be developed by the rencontre of opposite tendencies. This 
necessity of opposition is seen in mechanics, whose very initiative 
presents two postulates of impulse and resistance. The first un¬ 
folding of nature supposes a force that necessitates such an unfold¬ 
ing, and a primary condition of reserve unfriendly to it. Prepon¬ 
derance of imparting forces gives movement, which must have 
been the first evidence of matter. The contention of two oppo¬ 
site inclinations in matter giving two poles of termination, the 
opposition of the two gives an active tendency in the one and a 
fixed tendency in the other. These tendencies would result in the 
circle, but the active pole, which travelling around the passive one 
to produce the circumference, necessarily generates in the latter a 
point opposite to that of its first starting, which gives a third pole 
of antagonism. With the first point, resistance for the centre, the 
opposite poles of the circle revolving give the sphere, the first 
solid of revolution. But with the extended area of action the 
point of resistance must also extend, which it does, to the limit of 
the circumference in opposite directions. This gives the axis of 
the sphere, without whose persistence in the function of resistance, 
it could not move. In this manner the speaker accounted for the 
first fruits or results that might be called phenomenal; the cause 
of these results being ideal, a term which in philosophy signifies 
the conditions that antedate and determine the amounts of resist¬ 
ance which we term natural or moral. Of the ideal cause we can 
know nothing. The lecturer further elucidated this theory of 


8 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


matter and mind, and their relations to the Divine Being. She 
said that the series of thought could not be considered as infinite, 
any more than the series of matter. In time and space both must 
be subject to quantitive limitation. The two poles of matter, as 
had been seen, when projected, could nqt help generating the cir¬ 
cle, and the poles of the circumference, with that of the centre, 
could not help generating the sphere. Neither could the sphere 
do otherwise than generate other spheres, wdiose number must be 
limited, because without limit the idea of number could not exist. 
These spheres continuing passed to further and finer differentia¬ 
tion. This process continuing produces crystals and the various 
forms of vegetable and animal life. It causes trees to become 
vertical to their bases, the root and summit being poles of oppo¬ 
site necessity, with the wdiole current of vegetable life developed 
between them. This process, however, found its greatest result 
in the phenomena of life. Circulation cultivates the dynamic 
condition, being the return of a thing to its starting-point by a 
standing process of advance. Blood, nerve fluid, and thought 
make their rounds as regular as earth and sun, only more rapidly, 
extension and intention here compensating each other. Interrupt 
the circulation and the centres sicken. Death can begin either at 
the skin or at the heart, since life resides equally in outmost and 
inmost, and is dependent upon the normal conjunction and co¬ 
operation of the two. 

“ The further progress of polarity gives the true definition of 
the sexes. She supposed the whole series of mind, soul, and 
character to be evolved from the idea, as idea, in the same 
way in which form is evolved from matter, just as the idea 
of action and existence. The Divine, which she intended the 
same as the Idea, in order to reach the manifestation of number, 
was obliged to recognize a primary division of its attributes, for 
multiplication comes after division. One multiplied by one re¬ 
mains one to all eternity; give us another one and }^ou begin a 
series without end. Sex she described as an idea with a history. 
In the pursuit of this idea and its history she encountered the 
master agency of polarity, and found herself forced to derive sex 
from this, and to make the one her primary and the other her 
secondary subject. The word sex represented two functions, two 
parties, two personalities. The distinctions which distinguish 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


9 


these two parties are found equally in their psychical and in their 
physical constitutions. 

“ Man and woman differ as much in their intellectual and moral 
as in their material aspects. All their extensiveness or variety 
depends upon the maintained integrity of these two types. The 
inferiority of the one sex to the other is assumed as characteristic 
of the two throughout by the superficial thinker, and evinces an ig- * 
noranee of moral and dynamic values which is at once perversive 
of truth, and, so far as it reacts upon man, is subversive of the 
ideal order and economy of nature. The solution or establishment 
of these values is now one of the first needs of society. The first 
aspect of sex, like that of an integral humanity, was tyrannical on 
the one hand and slavish on the other. The strong man opposed 
the weaker ; but woman.being weaker still, a sort of compensatory 
protection was given to her. The injustice has been always more 
theoretical than practical, the experience of life and the instinctive 
good sense of mankind acting as a restraining and compensating 
force in the aggregate of human action. Yet as this ideal inequal¬ 
ity does affect the action and inter-action of man and woman, it 
could not be amiss to examine the extent of its existence and sat¬ 
isfy ourselves that such an equality does exist, either in the ideal 
or in the fact, in the divided being of which we term one part male 
and the other female. That a more worldly consideration, a more 
public sphere of action, and more definite labor pertains to the 
one than to the other is in no wise to be interpreted as evidence 
of superiority on the one hand and inferiority on the other. The 
experience of life tells us that we are constantly obliged to recede 
from seen values in order to realize true ones. The poorest head 
is often crowned with jewels, and the noblest with thorns. In this 
division, however, no inequality could be supposed possible, since 
one part of what is divine cannot be more divine than another. 
The distinction of sex is the mere initial of the simplest action of 
polarity in conscious and independent life, and thus makes the 
basis of two departments of labor and obligation ; for two amounts 
of attraction and consideration. But there was nothing in it to 
indicate any inequality between them. The man is half, the wom¬ 
an half. They were not merely mathematical halves, indifferent 
in themselves and never operative halves. This at once necessi¬ 
tates the two different amounts of action. All organizing human 


10 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


action, it seemed to her, resulted from the mutual action and in 
fluence of two such poles ; and this idea the speaker explained by 
means of a mathematical demonstration. As far as sex obtains 
in human affairs man represents the extensive and woman the in¬ 
tensive pole of motive, feeling, and intention. Man and woman 
were both entirely human and endowed in the same degree with 
sensibility, intelligence, and energ3 r . They have equal average 
capacities for the sum of those operations which constitute life, 
and are equally capable of culture, material, moral, and mental. 
Both think by logic, and live by affection. The degrees of ma¬ 
turity correspond in the two sexes. The best man is not better 
than the best woman, and the worst man not worse than the worst 
of the other sex. The fiend and the angel can be made in 
the form and features of either indifferently. In the substance, 
mental and moral, of which the two are made, there is neither qual- 
itiye nor quantitive difference, for she did not believe that either 
in weight or solidity, contained in the absolute productive energy, 
one would, in any degree, outvalue the other. The equality of 
the two was latent, but their unlikeness was patent. The differ¬ 
ence was that of a divided function, whose object continues to be 
one. The labor of illustrating, maintaining, and transmitting life 
was distributed between the two ; not by accidental and arbitrary 
determination, but in accordance with a certain divided function 
in the two, which, when matched each with the other, presented a 
moral and economic unit. Society was the multiplication of that 
unity. Both sexes worshipped the same being, though in different 
ways. Man represented the centrifugal, woman the centripetal 
division of force. In all good human lives the active and the 
passive were mixed. The nature and capacity of either sex has 
in it the elements of both. A s}^mpathetic man has the woman in 
him; a reasoning, energetic woman the man in her; for the vir 
must be in both in order that both should be human. Each person 
has the active and passive half, like the sun and shadow sides of 
a planet. In the progress of the great necessity from which we 
come experience obliges us to reverse the old Hebrew method. 
Man is always born of woman, and this is the logical sequence. 
As the world from the ideal, as the multiplicity from the unity, so 
man comes from woman, and every man looks back to his mother 
with mysterious wonder as to the origin of his life, known to her 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


11 


alone. The Germans call the sun feminine and the moon mascu¬ 
line, and this definition of their sex she thought was more in ac¬ 
cordance with theoretical fitness than ours. The idea around 
which the whole result and manifestation of the universe resolves 
is central and feminine. Our social organization was the work of 
harmonizing polarities which adjust activities and increase a com¬ 
patibility of all liberties. The problem of this great work had to 
be slowly worked out and verified until it reached that point where 
individual action became possible and consequently necessary. 

“This point, and others immediately suggested by it, were 
then discussed at considerable length by the speaker. She also 
considered the relation of the idea of polarity to government, say¬ 
ing that a republic sprang from a circumstance, and exceptional 
and momentary recognition of the great polarities whose action 
was represented in the words ‘truth’ and ‘justice.’ It comes 
of the belief that the supreme right, which is the form of the su¬ 
preme good, can govern in the persons of all with better realiza¬ 
tion than in the will of one or of several. It is a recognition b} r 
the whole community of the ideal standard to attribution, and of 
function to the primary motive power. But the ideal can only be 
embodied in extension. This involves time, and time involves 
new channels, and all men who have not thus enjoyed this direct 
illumination have more or less the human lessons to learn which 
must precede as a condition that extended view. The moral and 
social capital of mankind changes hands as well as does monetary 
capital. This was because humanity was essentially one. The 
ocean of being, like the great world-sea, has its variation of shores 
and currents, of limit and power; but it admits in its nature no 
such phenomena as isolation or permanence. The speaker then 
concluded her address with a beautiful apostrophe upon the golden 
voyages which Truth was ever making upon this sea, and the 
good results proceeding from the continued exchange of her 
heavenly commodities for those native to the soil of the various 
climes she visits.” 

Since this book was written I find that the views I have ex¬ 
pressed, relative to the physical basis of life, are being accepted 
by the loftiest minds, and that my theory that all life, mental and 
physical, every act in fine, are but so many chemical changes 


12 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTOKY. 


and conditions, is regarded as true. In view of which I here sub¬ 
join a notice of certain discoveries, cut from the pages of “Apple- 
ton’s Journal ”: — 

u The proposition, that knowledge is progressive, is common¬ 
place, but it nevertheless has an inexhaustible meaning. It im¬ 
plies successive conquests of the unknown, light behind and dark¬ 
ness before, and each age engaged with the definite work to which 
the past age has brought it, and which must be accomplished be¬ 
fore future questions can be reached or future victories made possi¬ 
ble. The intellectual work of an age is far from being what that 
age chooses. Past results are data ; past effort is training ; past 
experience, a preparation for researches which stand next in the 
logic of Nature’s intellectual order. The historic epochs of in¬ 
quiry are in definite sequence and intimate dependence. 

“ In the sixteenth century men first groped round the planet, 
and, grasping the conception of its form, dimensions, and of peo¬ 
ple on the other side, began to form definite notions of the world 
they lived in. This prepared for the work of the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury, which was, to ascertain the relations of the planet to the uni¬ 
verse, and to determine the laws of motion in the heavens and on 

% 

the earth, by which the foundations of physical science were laid. 
From the aspect of the universe in its vastness, and the properties 
of masses of matter, the eighteenth century passed to the study of 
nature in the opposite extreme of minuteness, — to the inner con¬ 
stitution and composition of material things, and the establish¬ 
ment of the science of chemistry. The discipline and results of 
physical inquiry, the art of experimenting, and the slow perfection 
of implements of research, were preliminary to the more subtile 
and refined investigation into atomic and molecular phenomena. 

“ With this scientific apprenticeship of three hundred years, the 
nineteenth century passes on, and enters upon the investigation of 
the great problem of life. The pioneering minds of the world are 
now absorbed in biological inquiries. Columbus before Newton, 
Newton before Lavoisier, and Lavoisier before Cuvier, Liebig, and 
Darwin, symbolize the sequence of discovery and indicate the 
problems that predominate in our own time. While physical and 
chemical inquiries are still pursued with greater intensity than 
ever, they have opened the gates of a still loftier research into 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


13 


the conditions and laws of life, the nature of life, and the origin 
of life. 

“ Nor is this last stage of thought a fruitless or a hopeless one. 
The men of science of each era have been discredited the mass 
of their contemporaries as pursuers of futile aims, and, although 
the majestic fabric of solid knowledge which they have reared at¬ 
tests their success, there are those still to whom the past teaches 
nothing, and who talk of the present predominant aims of science 
as chimerical and impossible. And yet, at no period and in no 
department of investigation has scientific progress been more 
rapid and sure than in the field of biology in the present century. 

“ An excellent illustration, both of the advancement which has 
been made in this direction and of the general interest which is 
felt in this class of subjects, is furnished by Professor Huxley’s 
recent lecture on 4 The Physical Basis of Life,’ and the reception it 
has met with. Several editions have been called for and issued, 
both in England and in this country, and it has aroused a great 
deal of curiosity, commendation, and criticism. A statement of 
the essential or more strictly biological portion of his argument 
will probably be acceptable to many of our readers. The under¬ 
standing of it may perhaps be facilitated by a few words of expla¬ 
nation in regard to the attitude or conditions of the question. 

44 When the microscope had reached a certain stage of perfec¬ 
tion, a few years ago, it was discovered that all living creatures, 
plants and animals, from the lowest to the highest, were made up 
of exceeding^ minute bodies called cells, each of which has a 
power of growth, reproduction, and decay, as truly as the most 
complex and developed being. It was supposed that, in discover¬ 
ing these amazingly minute microscopical structures, we had gone 
to the very bottom of the phenomena of life ; but further examina¬ 
tion has shown that this conclusion is erroneous. In the first 
place, it has been found that there are organic structures which 
are neither themselves cellular nor derived from cells, and in the 
next place there is a material of life lower still in the vital scale, 
and out of which all cells are constructed. Every form of organic 
structure is elaborated out of a common and universal material 
known in science under the name of protoplasm, and it is this 
which Professor Huxley terms the physical basis of life. The 
present view regarding cells and their relation to the primitive 


14 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


substance from which they spring is thus clearly stated by Mr. 
Herbert Spencer, in his 4 Principles of Biology : * 4 The doctrine 
that all organisms are built up of cells, or that cells are the ele¬ 
ments out of which every tissue is developed, is but approximately 
true. There are living forms of which cellular structure cannot be 
asserted ; and in living forms that are, for the most part, cellular, 
there are, nevertheless, certain portions which are not produced 
by the metamorphosis of cells. Supposing that they were the only 
material available for building, the proposition that all houses' are 
built of bricks would have about the same relation to the truth as 
does the proposition that all organisms are composed of cells. 
This generalization respecting houses would be open to two criti¬ 
cisms : first, that certain houses, of a primitive kind, are formed, 
not out of bricks, but out of unmoulded clay; and second, that, 
though other houses consist mainly of bricks, yet their chimney¬ 
pots, drain-pipes, and ridge-tiles do not result from combinations 
or metamorphosis of bricks, but are made directly of the original 
clay; and of like natures are the criticisms which must be passed 
on the generalization that cells are the morphological (structural) 
units of organisms. To continue the simile, the truth turns out 
to be that the primitive clay or protoplasm out of which organ¬ 
isms are built may be moulded directty, or with various degrees of 
indirectness, into organic structures.’ 

“Protoplasm consists of the four chemical elements, carbon, 
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, which also compose the bulk of 
the entire organic world. These elements are united in very com¬ 
plex union, the nature of which has never been determined with 
exactness. It is albumenoid in aspect, that is, like white of egg. 
A few years ago, the term protein was applied to a combination of 
these four elements, which was supposed to be the common basis 
of all albumenoid substances; but no such principle has ever been 
separated or proved to exist. The term, however, is still retained, 
though with what vagueness may be inferred from the statement 
of Professor Frankland, that so-called protein has probably more 
than a thousand isometric forms. 

“Professor Huxley aims to show that, as between protoplasm 
and all the developed forms of life, there is an acknowledged unity 
of composition , so there is also a unity of power and form. 

“ First, as regards unity of powers, by what property is it man- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


15 


ifested in the higher forms of life? By transitory changes of parts, 
which are due to the property of contractility. The power of 
movement in all the animal grades resolves itself into this : ‘ Even 
those manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of will, which we 
rightly name the higher faculties, are not excluded from this class¬ 
ification, inasmuch as (to every one but the subject of them) they 
are known only as transitory changes in the relative positions of 
different parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every other 
form of human action, are, in the long run, resolvable into muscu¬ 
lar contractions.’ 

“ But this property of contractility is also manifested in plants, 
and in protoplasm itself. ‘ So far as the conditions of the mani¬ 
festation of the phenomena of contractility have yet been studied, 
they are the same for the plant as for the animal. Heat and elec¬ 
tric shocks influence both and in the same way, though it may be 
in different degrees. It is by no means my intention to suggest 
that there is no difference in faculty between the lowest plant and 
the highest, or between plants and animals. But the difference 
between the powers of the lowest plant or animal and the highest 
is one of degree, not of kind, and depends, as Milne-Edward long 
ago so well pointed out, upon the extent to which the division of 
labords carried out in the living economy.’ 

“ The following graphic passages present a vivid picture of the 
extent and regularity of protoplasmic movements : — 

“ ‘ I am not now alluding to such phenomena, at once rare and 
conspicuous, as those exhibited by the leaflets of the sensitive- 
plant, or the stamens of the barberry, but to much more widely 
spread, and, at the same time, more subtle and hidden, manifesta¬ 
tions of vegetable contractility. You are doubtless aware that the 
common nettle owes its stinging property to the innumerable stiff 
and needle-like, though exquisitely delicate, hairs which cover its 
surface. Each stinging-needle tapers from a broad base to a slen¬ 
der summit, which, though rounded at the end, is. of such micro¬ 
scopic fineness that it readily penetrates, and breaks off in, the 
skin. The whole hair consists of a very delicate outer case of 
wood, closely applied to the inner surface of which is a layer of 
semi-fluid matter, full of innumerable granules of extreme mi¬ 
nuteness. This semi-fluid lining is protoplasm, which thus consti¬ 
tutes a kind of bag, full of a limpid liquid, and roughly corre- 


16 


LOVE AND ITS HI DDE I HISTORY. 


sponding in form with the interior of the hair which it fills. When 
viewed with a sufficientty high magnifying power, the protoplasmic 
layer of the nettle-hair is seen to be in a condition of unceasing 
activity. Local contractions of the whole thickness of its sub¬ 
stance pass slowly and gradually from point to point, and give 
rise to the appearance of progressive waves, just as the bending 
of successive stalks of corn by a breeze produces the apparent 
billows of a corn-field. 

u ‘ But, in addition to these movements and independently of 
them, the granules are driven, in relatively rapid streams, through 
channels in the protoplasm which seem to have a considerable 
amount of persistence. Most commonly, the currents in adjacent 
parts of the protoplasm take similar directions; and, thus, there 
is a general stream up one side of the hair and down the other. 
But this does not prevent the existence of partial currents which 
take different routes; and, sometimes, trains of granules may be 
seen coursing swiftly in opposite directions, within a twenty-thou¬ 
sandth of an inch of one another; while, occasionally, opposite 
streams come into direct collision, and, after a longer or shorter 
struggle, one predominates. The cause of these currents seems 
to lie in contractions of the protoplasm, which bounds the chan¬ 
nels in which they flow, but which are so minute that the’ best 
microscopes show only their effects, and not themselves. 

“ ‘ The spectacle afforded by the wonderful energies prisoned 
within the compass of the microscopic hair of a plant, which we 
commonly regard as a merely passive organism, is not easily for¬ 
gotten by one who has watched its display, continued hour after 
hour, without pause or sign of weakening. The possible com¬ 
plexity of many other organic forms, seemingly as simple as the 
protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one ; and the comparison of 
such a protoplasm to a body with an internal circulation, which 
has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, loses much of 
its startling character. Currents similar to those of the hairs of 
the nettle have been observed in a great multitude of very differ¬ 
ent plants, and weighty authorities have suggested that they prob¬ 
ably occur, in more or less perfection, in all young vegetable cells. 
If such be the case, the wonderful noonday silence of a tropical 
forest is, after all, due only to the dulness of our hearing; and 
could our ears catch the murmur of these tiny maelstroms, as they 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


17 


whirl in the innumerable myriads of living cells which constitute 
each tree, we should be stunned, as with the roar of a great 
city/ 

“ There is, however, this fundamental difference between plants 
and animals ; that while plants can manufacture fresh protoplasm 
out of mineral elements, animals, on the other hand, are obliged 
to procure it ready made, and in the long run depend upon plants. 

4 With this qualification it may be truly said that the acts of all 
living things are fundamentally one.’ 

“ But this unity is not limited to action ; Mr. Huxley maintains 
that it extends also to form: — 

44 4 If a drop of blood be drawn by pricking one’s finger, and 
viewed with proper precautions and under a sufficiently high 
microscopic power, there will be seen, among the innumerable 
multitude of little, circular, discoidal bodies, or corpuscles, which 
float in it and give it its color, a comparatively small number of 
colorless corpuscles, of somewhat larger size and very irregular 
shape. If the drop of blood be kept at the temperature of the 
body, these colorless corpuscles will be seen to exhibit a marvel¬ 
lous activity, changing their forms with great rapidity, drawing in 
and thrusting out prolongations of their substance, and creeping 
about as if they were independent organisms. 

44 4 The substance, which is thus active, is a mass of protoplasm, 
and its activity differs in detail, rather than in principle, from that 
of the protoplasm of the nettle. Under sundi\y circumstances the 
corpuscle dies and becomes distended into a round mass, in the 
midst of which is seen a smaller spherical body, which existed, 
but was more or less hidden, in the living corpuscle, and is called 
its nucleus. Corpuscles of essentially similar structure are to be 
found in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, and scattered through 
the whole framework of the body. Nay, more; in the earliest 
condition of the human organism, in that state in which it has 
just become distinguishable from the egg in which it arises, 
it has nothing but an aggregation of such corpuscles, and 
every organ of the body was, once, no more than such an aggre¬ 
gation. 

4 4 4 Thus a nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what 
maybe termed the structural unit of the human body. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, the body, in its earliest state, is a mere multiple of 


2 


18 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


such units, and in its perfect condition it is a multiple of such 
units variously modified. 

“ ‘ But does the formula which expresses the essential structural 
character of the highest, animal cover all the rest, as the statement 
of its powers and faculties covered that of all others? Very 
nearly. Beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and 
polype, are all composed of structural units of the same character, 
namely, masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. There are sun¬ 
dry very low animals, each of which, structurally, is a mere color¬ 
less blood-corpuscle, leading an independent life. But, at the 
very bottom of the animal scale, even this simplicity becomes 
simplified, and all the phenomena of life are manifested by a par¬ 
ticle of protoplasm without a nucleus. Nor are such organisms 
insignificant by reason of their want of complexity. It is a fair 
question whether the protoplasm of those simplest forms of life, 
which people an immense extent of the bottom of the sea, would 
not outweigh that of all the higher living beings which inhabit tne 
land put together. And in ancient times, no less than at the pres¬ 
ent day, such living beings as these have been the greatest of 
rock-builders. 

“ ‘ What has been said of the animal world is no less true of 
plants. Embedded in the protoplasm at the broad, or attached, 
end of the nettle-hair, there lies a spheroidal nucleus. Careful 
examination further proves that the whole substance of the nettle 
is made up of a repetition of such masses of nucleated proto¬ 
plasm, each contained in a wooden case, w r hich is modified in 
form, sometimes into woody fibre, sometimes into a duct or spiral 
vessel, sometimes into a pollen-grain, or an ovule. Traced back 
to its earliest state, the nettle arises, as the man does, in a particle 
of nucleated protoplasm. And in the lowest plants, as in the 
lowest animals, a single mass of such protoplasm may constitute 
the whole plant, or the protoplasm may exist without a nucleus. 

“ 4 Under these circumstances, it may well be asked, How is one 
mass of non-nucleated protoplasm to be distinguished from an¬ 
other ? Why call one “ plant ” and the other “ animal ” ? 

“‘The onty reply is that, so far as form is concerned, plants and 
animals are not separable, and that, in many cases, it is a mere 
matter of convention whether we call a given organism an animal 
or a plant. There is a living body, called ^Jthalium septicum, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


19 


\ 


which appears upon decaying vegetable substances, and in one of 
its forms is common upon the surfaces of tan-pits. In this condi¬ 
tion it is, to all intents and purposes, a fungus, and formerly was 
always regarded as such; but the remarkable investigations of 
De Bary have shown that, in another condition, the JEthalium is 
an actively locomotive creature, and takes in solid matters, upon 
which, apparently, it feeds, thus exhibiting the most characteristic 
features of animality. Is this a plant? or is it an animal? Is it 
both? or is it neither? Some decide in favor of the last supposi¬ 
tion, and establish an intermediate kingdom, a sort of biological 
No-Man’s Land for all these questionable forms. But, as it is 
admittedly impossible to draw any distinct boundary line between 
this no-man’s land and the vegetable world on the one hand, or 
the animal on the other, it appears to me that this proceeding 
merely doubles the difficulty which, before, was single. 

, ‘‘‘Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all 
life. It is the clay of the potter, which, bake it and paint it as 
he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, 
from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.’ 

“ The transformations of protoplasm, in their practical aspect, 
are thus neatly illustrated by the Professor : — 

“ ‘ In the wonderful story of the “ Peau de Chagrin,” the hero be¬ 
comes possessed of a magical wild ass’s skin, which yields him the 
means of gratifying all his wishes. But its surface represents the 
duration of the proprietor’s life ; and for every satisfied desire the 
skin shrinks in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at 
length life and the last liand-breadth of the peau de chagrin disap¬ 
pear with the gratification of a last wish. 

* “ ‘ Balzac’s studies had led him over a wide range of thought and 
speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in this 
strange story may have been intentional. At any rate, the matter 
of life is a veritable peau de chagrin , and for every vital act it is 
somewhat the smaller. All work implies w r aste, and the work of 
life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm. 

“ ‘Every w r ord uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss : 
and, in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light, — 
so much eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic 
acid, water, and urea. It is clear that this process of expenditure 
cannot go on forever. But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de 


20 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


chagrin differs from Balzac in its capacity of being repaired, and 
brought back to its full size, after every exertion. 

“ ‘ For example, this present lecture, whatever its intellectual 
worth to you, has a certain physical value to me, which is, con¬ 
ceivably, expressible by the number of grains of protoplasm and 
other bodily substance wasted in maintaining my vital processes 
during'its delivery. My peau de chagrin will be distinctly smaller 
at the end of the discourse than it was at the beginning. By and 
by, I shall probabty have recourse to the substance commonly 
called mutton, for the purpose of stretching it back to its original 
size. Now, this mutton was once the living protoplasm, more or 
less modified, of another animal, — a sheep. As I shall eat it, it is 
the same matter altered, not only by death, but by exposure to 
sundry artificial operations in the process of cooking. 

“ ‘ But these changes, whatever be their extent, have not ren¬ 
dered it incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life. 
A singular inward laboratory which I possess will dissolve a cer¬ 
tain portion of the modified protoplasm; the solution so formed 
will pass into my veins ; and the subtle influences to which it will 
then be subjected will convert the dead protoplasm, and transub¬ 
stantiate sheep into man. 

“ ‘ Nor is this all. If digestion w r ere a thing to be trifled with, I 
might sup upon a lobster, and the matter of life of the crustacean 
would undergo the same wonderful metamorphosis into humanity. 
And, were I to return to my own place by sea, and undergo ship¬ 
wreck, the Crustacea might, and probably would, return the com¬ 
pliment, and demonstrate our common nature by turning my pro¬ 
toplasm into living lobster. Or, if nothing better were to be had, 
I might supply my wants with mere bread, and I should find the 
protoplasm of the wheat-plant to be convertible into man, with no 
more trouble than that of the sheep, and with far less, I fancy, 
than that of the lobster.’ ” 

I hold that every one of us is born with a certain amount of 
protoplasmal capital, both in fact and the power of gaining it. 
Nothing wastes so much as heat, hence the affections will not bear 
too much tampering with, for of all the earthly powers of life- 
destroying, none are so effectual as the passions, especially the 
amorous, for it destroys and saps the very citadel and capital of 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


21 


life itself. Further on I shall again allude to this view of the 
general subject. 

In what herein follows, Love is the theme or topic, as w'ell in its 
practical, matter-of-fact, every-day, and passional, as in its more 
lofty, theoretical, and sentimental, but not its lackadaisical aspects ; 
and in endeavoring to faithfully perform this task,— not wholly self- 
imposed, it will be necessary, I trust, without offence, to use bold 
terms ; because errors are to be exposed, fallacies exploded, cur¬ 
rent follies rebuked, and modern theories weighed in the balance 
of just reason. On the subject of the affections we have had a 
surfeit of philosophy; now we want common sense; especially 
in reference to certain peculiar notions thereanent, put forth, very 
confidently, and sustained by logic modelled on new plans, and 
claiming no relationship with the s^rstems of either Aristotle, 
Bacon, or John Stewart Mill, by persons claiming to be “reform¬ 
ers.” Freely admitting the fact that there may be too much 
mawkishness, and not a little prudery, on the part of over-sensi¬ 
tive people on the general subject of the various moods of human 
affection, the abuse of which, and not the moods themselves , 
has occasioned much misery in the world of civilizees; yet, 
nevertheless, in order to full justice, it will be necessary to treat 
of the lower, as well as the nobler, phases of the superlative, grand 
master-passion of mankind ; for the reason, among others, that 
there ismiuch license, both in thought and life, in this respect, that 
needs to be restrained. In doing this, of course nothing shall be 
purposely put forward that can offend sound or healthy morals; 
nothing save what God, our benignant Father, hath already written 
on the world’s face, if the world would only stop to read ; hence, 
while avoiding offence, my meaning shall not be stilted bej^ond 
common reach, or hidden beneath a cloak of hard words. I make 
a plea for woman — and mean to he understood! Many a well- 
meaning man and woman has, of late years, been led to believe 
that love and passion are one and the same. A great error ! Pas¬ 
sion is but a mood of love. Its (love’s) seat is in the soul, and 
its roots only in the body. The cerebral organ thereof is not in the 
back basilar brain, but on the summit of the fore-brain, right in 
the group of the phrenologist’s “ Fancy,” “ Reverence,” “ Ideali¬ 
ty,” “ Hope,” and the general aesthetic family. Latterly, all over 
the world, certain passion-driven people, male and female, having 


22 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


nothing better to do, have — and with marked success, so easy 
is it to do wrong — set up as philosophers, and deluded thousands 
into the horrible social quagmire, which they chose to call “pas¬ 
sional attraction,” or “free love.” In England, “Brother 
Prince ”— recently gathered to his fathers — startled the world 
with his “Agapemone” or “abode of love.” In America, one 
John Noyes established a “ free-love community.” At Berlin 
Heights, Ohio, something similar was attempted, and “ philosoph¬ 
ical ” bagnios were established at various points, culminating in 
Utah, and the erratic zealots called their system divine. Just think 
of promiscuity being divine! Divinity in a brothel! — following 
concubinage as a profession! It has been, by many fine minds, 
declared to be a sophism so senseless, yet so specious, as only to 
be accepted as truth by the insane. In a measure this is true, for 
look where you will you will never find a healthy man or woman a ’ 
“ free ” lover! Such persons, by pl^sical derangement, while 
sound on other subjects, are erratic,— passion-mad, and therefore 
pitiable monomaniacs; their cases suggesting hydropathic, 
douche, and sitz-bath treatment, with occasional ice-bags on the 
vertebral column. I once heard of a remarkable cure effected of a 
philosopher of that ilk, the prescription being, as himself ex¬ 
pressed it: “I tried it and lost tweifiy-five 3'ears of life inside of 
twenty months. I am an old man at forty years of age and gray.” 
The strongest argument against it is to be found in ^ little 
words : “It isn’t Right; it is Wrong ! ” Physiologically it is so 
also, because the physical interest is altogether too usurious ? bj 1- 
which I mean, that whosoever allows the amative passion to be 
excited by new parties generates vital magnetism in vast quanti¬ 
ties — and loses it; for once excited, it must pass from the system 
in some way until the normal plane is again reached, yet the life 
thus lost can never be wholly regained. Where monogamy pre¬ 
vails there is never a continued blaze of passion, nor that exces¬ 
sive depletion consequent, invariably, upon indiscriminate pro¬ 
miscuity. 

A life of perfect innocence, in that respect, is the only true life! 
— how many live it? — and the breath spent in defending such a 
rhonstrous system had far better be used in cooling bowls of por¬ 
ridge ; and, by the wa}^, a diet of gruel will do much toward 
cooling the ardor of all such “philosophers.” It, in the next 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


2o 

place, is an infraction of the golden rule. Nor can one of its be¬ 
lievers be found, who would even think of taking his own daughter 
in such society ; and who will not writhe at the knowledge of the 
fact that some one has plaj^ed a Roland to his Oliver ? Bring the 
thing home, and not one of them will acknowledge it right if his 
heart clings to those that constitute that home. 

The material, nervous, cerebral, and organic exhaustion — the 
useless expenditure of life and vitality— are such, that not even an 
iron constitution could maintain its integrity for three consecutive 
years; or self-respect, or the real esteem of others for half that 
period of time. 

Especially is this true among women, for no sooner is one of 
them even charged or suspected of what the term implies than her 
happiness is ended in that circle, for every female, save only her 
mother, will begin a war, cruel, cutting, endless, and terrible, 
against her. It takes woman to abuse woman. For spite, slan¬ 
der, vituperation, and the other little kindred and penetrating items 
the female sex has a power beside which the male sex can never 
hope for distinction. Woman is eminently eminent on her 
tongue . . . Weaknesses vary, also their locality. Some have them 
in the head,«some in the heart, others in the stomach, and still 
others in the legs. The latter pertain to such as have something 
inwardly which has a strong determination to show itself out¬ 
wardly. fj*A weakness in the head makes a goose ; one in the heart 
a cipher; one in the stomach a glutton and a dyspeptic. All 
weaknesses are so much genuine stock abstracted from a good and 
perfect man or woman, — if there is ever anything of the latter 
sort. The best method of treatment of a weakness is with a 
strong hand; like a consuming conflagration, you are to put it 
out. 

Mankind, like notes, are to be taken at a liberal discount. Few 
people come up to their self-asserted value. Women put their best 
side forward, and are thus confessedly one-sided ; men put on a 
face which is too often a mask. Not one in a thousand is really 
up to what he, she, or it would like to be gauged at. Life is a sort- 
of game, in which the best-looking cards are played first, and 
the paltry nothings reserved until necessity compels us to show 
our hands ; and too often they are found to be not over-clean. 

The love of home and country is a good thing. People who 


24 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


have this sort of affection are patriotic and stanch. The advan¬ 
tage of love of this nature is that it is rarely unprofitably dis¬ 
posed. A man may love a woman, or a woman a man, and the 
result be a bad investment. The world is full of the mistakes of 
love, and it is probable that more is thrown away than is bestowed 
on worthy and reciprocated objects. 

Steer clear of burning love. There is danger in it. It is apt, 
like bad company, to have evil communications. 

The way we love, or judge others who do, or think they do, very 
often depends upon our own moral and spiritual health, and this 
latter often results from our physical condition. 

A touch of dyspepsia, growing out of pig’s foot swallowed at 
midnight, has changed a man’s whole life, and an irregularity of 
the bile has made many an angel almost a fiend. If the gastric 
juice is all right, and the blood in swimming order, the world is a 
nice, bright, pleasant place, and from which nobody is in a hurry 
to move ; but if, in that queer, mysterious fluid, there is any allo3 r , 
the sk} T of life is all cloud, the winds howl, and everything is dark 
and dismal. If }^ou want to feel happy, look after your digestive 
and circulating systems. 

My heart, I bid thee answer, 

How are Love’s triumphs wrought ? 

Two hearts to one pulse beating, 

Two spirits to one thought! ^ 

Tell me how Love cometh. 

It comes unsought — unsent. 

Now tell me how Love goeth. 

It was not Love that went. 

And to enable my readers to discriminate between true love and 
its counterfeits, is partly why I write this book. 

Promiscuous love, — freedom in that intimate relation is moral, 
social, physical, and psychical suicide ; that’s all. Proof,— look at 
the victims of it on every hand. 

I shall have occasion to recur to this branch of the subject 
again ; meantime a word or two about vampires, conscious and 
unconscious ; and in treating upon that painful and woe-freighted 
phase of this holy theme, I shall speak also of it in its higher and 

nobler aspects.Whoever can look unmoved upon 

the picture of “ Evangeline,”—to be seen almost everywhere, in 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


25 


» 


photographers’ and printsliop windows,— and not be moved, ay, 
deeply and mysteriously moved, while gazing upon the sorrowful, 
and yet calm features, had better begin the work of developing 
heart, for as yet it is ungrown ; and whosoever, understanding^, 
does look upon that portrait, knows more of love than human 
words are able to convey. The artist who painted the phase of 
the kingly sentiment there portrayed, and the others who 
engraved it, must have known not merely love, but love blighted 
by death, betrayal, or desertion. All men, all women, are full, not 
only of love to bestow, but of a deathless, unquenchable desire to 
have love bestowed upon them. Of course, I mean that love 
which is husbandly, wifely, — blending with that amicive affection 
which unites friends, allies us to the world of Good, of Use, and 
of Beauty, and fusing into love of the Creator, as their ex¬ 
haustless fount and source,— the perpetual well-spring of eternal 
life and excellence. Perfect love between man and woman is 
perfect fusion of each, a complete blending of the twain. But 
love is murdered nowada}^; it is constantly sacrificed on the 
altars of fashion, wealth, selfishness, and something far worse! 

I am certain that there is a great deal of mawkish prudery in 
the world, on the subject of love, that needs correction; and, 
therefore, lay it down as incontrovertibly true, that nine-tenths of 
the prostitution of civilization comes of the bad training, hence 
unhealthy development, of girls. I hold that it will require 
twenty times the eloquence on the part of a libertine to seduce 
and ruin a healthy girl that it will to triumph over one that is not 
healthy — whose eating, drinking, sleeping, work, exercise, play, 
and dress have been what it should be, from infancy up ; and I 
believe you may preach the moral law till doomsday, and never 
correct the evil! You forget the body ; ignore it entirely, in your 
earnest search for a girl’s best good. Her soul’s welfare, and the 
fevered body, stimulant craving, her cramped waist, contracted 
lungs, fevered stomach, and abnormal craving for excitement, 
hurl her soul and body also beyond your reach, and the moral 
law’s too; and then you gape, and cry, “Who’d a’ thought 
it,” when, if you had kept her well, and taught her young what she 
should have knowm, she would have escaped the contaminating 
influence of solitary vice, withstood temptations of another sort, 
and have been blooming where now she fades; robust where 


I 


26 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


weak; and in her prime at fifty years, instead of nervous and 
consumptive at nineteen, dead at twenty-five, and stranded on 
life’s voyage ere it was fairly begun ! If a girl’s stomach, liver, 
and heart be diseased, her mind and morals — which depend upon 
the bodily state — cannot escape. Mark that, ye mothers of girls ! 
for that mental and moral states depend upon physical conditions, 
cannot be doubted longer; witness the effects of intoxicating 
liquors ! Ten murders, five fights, and half a hundred crimes 
beside, lurk in every gallon of whiskey — improperly — if ever 
properly — used. A week’s neglect or wrong living may drive any 
girl or boy to personal vice or worse things ; all of which I propose 
to prevent by enforcing attention to bodily health ; for the diseases 
of this age, mental, moral and physical — ay ! even social, muni¬ 
cipal, and national — have their foundation in the infraction of the 
laws of our love-nature ! Nor is this state of things the result, 
altogether, of our own personal frailty, but is the legitimate inher¬ 
itance bequeathed unto us by our ancestors. Ours is a vicarious 
atonement! 

What is love? It is a physical, mental, almost inexplicable 
something inherent, that attaches us to others. But whatever it 
may be in the final analysis, certain it is, that its laws are the 
laws of MAGNETISM; for a non-magnetic person is incapable 
of a full, deep, rich love! Hence, the most loving are the most 
magnetic — [see note] — are those who either draw others unto 
them, or else are draion. To be magnetic, therefore loving, you 
must be well,— full to the brim of royal health. We eat and 
drink. By the action of certain minute ganglia, there is secreted 
from the arterial blood an impalpable, ethereal, magnetic aura, 
which enters into, and invigorates the nerves and brain, giving 
us all the physical and other power that we have. It sometimes 
rushes to and fills the brain. Then we are in high spirits. At 
other times it rushes to the digestive organs, and then we delight 
in the table and the wine-cup. Or it may centre in the brain just 
over the eyes,— then we are clairvoyant; or back of the ears,— then 
we are angry ; or to the pelvic organs, — then we are passional. We 
may have the power to flash it from our eyes, and stream it from 
our fingers, — then we can fascinate others, and put them in mag¬ 
netic sleep, and also relieve pain by the “ laying on of hands,”_ 

which is no longer, as it once was, an unscrutable miracle. Some- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


27 


times, we have it in such abundance, that it floats all around us ; 
then everybody is attracted. Some people have none at all. These 
are vampires, and exhaust all who come near them, as if the} r had 
been sapped dry of every drop of blood and vitality! In the 
presence of certain persons you are suffused with their subtle 
magnetic emanations (blood fire), and instantly there is*evoked in 
you very strong sensations, and excitements peculiar and very 
strange. If those persons are healthy, physically and otherwise, 
the effect on you will correspond. But if their love-nature be 
perverted, inflammatoiy, morbid, then all the apocalyptic plagues 
may follow as a consequence. 

[Note. — Twenty-five years of observation, as thinker and physician, have 
led me to the conclusion that thousands of unhappy homes are such for 
the reason that one or both parties to the marital compact have become 
magnetically exhausted, or demoralized. In many cases it results from the 
presence of depleting parasites and animalculae in the system; spores 
producing morbid fungi throughout the body, and animalculm which feed 
upon the electric life of human kind. 

Another cause of unhappy married lives, I believe, is to be found in the 
use and abuse of passion ; and the disturbing causes being removed and 
cured, a renewed and enduring affection can be established between the 
disaffected. Let those who would be surprised at a great truth and simple 
fact, with the means of turning a domestic hell into a charming heaven, 
learn it. I believe it possible to restore affection between the most widely 
opposite, and apparently mismatched couples, and that simply by remov¬ 
ing the physical causes; and these causes are often no more than a non¬ 
electric state, — slime insulations, or other states that prevent due 
magnetic, electric, and nervous circulation. When I first announced this 
theory, and practised accordingly, the wise ones laughed at it and its 
author; but the lapse of years at length turned the tables, and the 
laughing philosophers came to terms. Truth is mighty, after all! and 
despite many defeats, does triumph in the end, and in her turn laughs at 
the laughers. As for the theory, ca ira /—It will go! Because it is true !1 

Here you have the rationale and solution of the “Passional 
Attraction,” and so-called, but in reality wretched, u True and 
Eternal Affinity ” business. Now lust is but mere physical fire,— 
an intense form of personal magnetism. It is a material aura 
pervading the body ; it is very subtle, but quite substantial; when 
it is penned up, it, like dammed waters, seeks to escape. It is 
subject to heats and colds, because material, and as such, is liable 
to disease, because the body that evolves it is so just as a scrofu- 
lous woman cannot nurse her babe on pure milk from her own 


28 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


bosom. The presence of diseased magnetism or vitiated blood 
aura is the prolific source of six-tenths of the diseases of Christen¬ 
dom ; to it can be safely laid nearly all the ills, social, marital, 
physical, moral, emotional, and intellectual, of the Christian 
world. Why sang Fatima the song she did ? Why ? because of 
the purity *of this blood-fire, or magnetic aura in nerves, and heart, 
and brain, and the consequent health of the soul. For if it be 
roasted or diseased, dire inflammations, moral, intellectual, and 
physical, are sure to follow. It is liable to chill and fever, clear¬ 
ness and turbidity. If it be kept pure and healthy, there’s but 
little danger to girls or women, because they are Fi'r-tous, that is, 
strong. It is not too much to say that four-fifths of married 
American women are painfully disordered ; nor that the causes 
thereof may be found in what passes for their — homes ! nor that 
nine-tenths of the bickerings and domestic hells on earth have 
their origin in the senseless stupidity of their husbands, cures for 
which have been sought for in divorce courts, but without avail; 
for, out of one trouble into a worse, generally follows as a result. 
My object in writing this is to show woman a higher law than those 
of States, and to urge her to appeal hereafter to the Courts of 
Health and Common Sense, by clearly revealing Love and its 
Hidden Mystery. 

Pelvic inflammation is the national disease, for in its train follows 
all others, from nervous agitation to wild and hopeless delirium. 
Secret vice and open crime are quite as much diseases as moral 
sins; and millions there be who are victims thereunto. Under 
the dreadful passional spell man forgets honor and woman loses 
shame ; the one becomes pale, fickle, vacillating,— false even to 
her sworn oath at the altar; and the other a helpless, shattered 
wreck at forty years of age. The one goaded on to voluntary, 
semi-unconscious self-murder by inflamed blood ; the other ruined 
by excess and libertinism. And out of both grow the great 
modern crimes ; especially that of infanticide, — a horror easily 
preventable, as I intend to show. 

In all our large cities there are scores of shameless wretches, 
vile abortionists, male and female, in my opinion fit candidates 
for the gyves or gallows, who flaunt their dreadful trade of child- 
destroying barefacedly to the world ; who advertise liberally in 
the public journals, informing people where they can get Murder 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


29 


done at so much per head , — a terrible state of things, but legitimate¬ 
ly growing out of popular demand, arising from popular hypocrisy, 
which seems to hold that a bastard is not fit to live, and therefore 
should be hurried into, and out of, the world as soon as possible. 
And yet, not one half the murdered innocents are such; for if we 
can believe scores of family physicians, ten married women resort 
to it, where one poor deceived girl is forced to, wholly unconscious 
of the dreadful enormity of her offence. And yet even a bastard is 
the handiwork of the Eternal God! Why not, then,permit them 
to be born, even though the mothers pass shamefacedly through the 
world ! Legislators, in God’s name I implore you to establish 
Foundling Hospitals for these unfortunates. It will not be put¬ 
ting premium on crime, but it will prevent many a suicide, and 
save thousands of human beings who are now being ruthlessly 
butchered, that abortion-brokers may fatten in the land ! Murder, 
sirs, I tell you that red-handed Murder is abroad in the land, and 
his victims are the Innocents. It is the fashionable crime, alike 
resorted to by women in and out of wedlock, — of all classes, from 
the public leman on the highway, to My Lady Gay, and the poor 
girl who has loved, not wisely, but too well. Oh, all good people, 
let us try to prevent this tide of crime from submerging our 
country,—you in your way, I in mine. We are all journeying 
to the Land beyond the Shadow. Let us do something worthy 
ere we go. Good people, listen ! 


THE HIDDEN MYSTERY. 

I. Woman bolds the reins of the world, if she but knew how to 
drive the fractious steed. She falls victim to passion only because 
of her physical unhealth and feebleness of will. She can — any 
girl or woman can — defy the arts and blandishments of any man 
who would lure her on to ruin, by preserving her health by right 
living, and steadily culturing the faculty of will. And she can 
do this, and increase her own power and attractions, by thinking 
“ I will be strong! and I will conquer the impulse that bids me 
yield! ” 

II. Any girl or woman can, by will alone, drive back any mor¬ 
bid magnetism flowing from another, and can restrain and direct 
to cooler channels that which pertains to her own physical being; 


30 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


and she can instantly turn the current of her own dangerous 
thought, impulse, or tendency, by resolutely thinking of something 
else, and firmly fixing the mind upon it! 

III. A great many think themselves in love, who are only mag¬ 
netically fascinated, or, perhaps, vampyrized; and all marriages 
consummated under that delusion are just as certain to produce 
sickness, wretchedness, untold misery, as that units of the same 
kind equal each other. Test the matter thus, and the counsel will 
serve for either sex: If the affection be one of soul and princi¬ 
ple, it will stand the test. If otherwise, it will n6t. The test 
itself is absolute and certain, and is based upon a correct under¬ 
standing of the working of the highest faculty in conformitj^ with 
the highest law of mind. Let us suppose a case, and try it by 
way of illustration. Mary fancies herself in love with Henry, and 
to find out whether it is true love or mere magnetic passion, she care¬ 
fully bathes to cool her blood, and then calmly sits at a table, 
leaning her face upon her hands, and steadily gazing at a spoonful 
of ink in a saucer upon the table, a speck of dust, or any other 
object she may chance to see before her. This, to enable her to 
concentrate her mental faculties. She now seriously, first, prays 
for internal, spiritual, religious light to solve her doubts, 
and then directs her whole soul toward Henry, desiring to know 
him as he really is, thus bringing his mental image before her 
mind’s eye; at the same time desiring to know of her own soul 
whether his love for her be real. If it be real, the mental image 
will stand revealed before her soul in an atmosphere perfectly 
lucid, clear, and cool. But if not true, then her perception will be 
blurred, vagarious, stifling, and confused. This is decisive; nor is it 
black art, folly, spiritualistic, or mediatorial, but is based on three 
laws of the human mind: 1st, the law and power of the will; 2d, 
concentration to a given end; and, 3d, the truth-compelling 
power of the human soul; for God never allows a lie to flow 
into us if we prayerfully, steadily, liolily, and persistently ask 
for Truth ! If the eyes be closed during the process, it is still 
better than as above directed. Love clarifies ! Passion blurs the 
wonderful mirror-lenses of the human soul! 

IV. In the same identical way the person may easily ascertain 
the whereabouts and condition of absent ones ; in a word, here 
is the whole secret of modern so-called u clairvoyance,” in a nut- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


31 


shell, — a power that nine in ten can exercise without any foreign 
or extrinsic aid whatever, if we except the aid of a magnetic 
bandage, nor is that even absolutely necessary. 

V. In the same way, one can determine the diseases of another, 
the sex of an unborn child, and many other things ; because, when 
prayerfully directed to dive, the soul brings up truth, and truth 
only. This power comnot be used for any selfish, mean, immoral, 
or wrong purpose whatever, for such motives dim the vision and 
utterly obscure it. 

That the unhappy state of woman results from errors of judg¬ 
ment in love matters is notorious. It would not be so if the matter 
were tested before false or unwise steps were taken. But when girls 
are properly educated, fed, exercised, worked , and clothed , there 
will be developed a ripeness of perception and judgment, that 
will enable them, not merely to look forward to the wedding-dress 
and honeymoon, — and there stop, as now, — but to look afar 
down the valley of life in the clear light of immutable principles. 

VI. Girls or wives, who suffer a great deal of mental anguish, 
which they attribute to affectional, conjugal, or domestic causes, 
often db so wrongly ; and four-fifths of them will disappear before 
the magic charm, continually resorted to, of well-filled lungs, of 
sun-wanned air, a clear skin, active liver, and thoroughly purified 
scalp and teeth, loose garments, few sweets, hearty food, open-air 
exercise, and the hygienic use of music and laughter! 

VII. All crime, error, wrong action, results from the flow of 
blood and nervous aura into wrong cerebral and other organs ; and 
these effects can gradually, physiologically, be changed ; that is, a 
normal change and circulation be effected ; for well-filled lungs and 
an active heart are the elements of physical, moral, mental, 
and amicive, as well as passional, power. A contracted heart 
and collapsed lungs mean illness and vice. 

VIII. American women have plenty of nervous intensity, but 
wofully lack in wiLL-power. They often rush to quacks and 
dangerous nostrums to procure the means of governing family 
increase, and kill themselves by so doing; wholly oblivious of the 
fact that the bath, robust health, and the exercise of the icill and 
proper periodical caution are the only necessary methods, — prac¬ 
tised for countless ages by Oriental women, — crimeless, sinless, 
stainless. Illustration : The soul and body interchangeably affect 


32 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


each other. The will will close the hand, e 3 ^es, mouth ; will it not? 
Yes. Well, exercise that same will in other respects, and one 
can command any organ to obey; and the volition will be found 
effectual. Thus, by means of a normal facult} T , God-appointed, both 
crime and anguish may be prevented, health preserved, and happi¬ 
ness retained. If the will be exercised in precisely the opposite 
direction the glorious mission of the mother will begin. 

IX. Cultivate the will by calmly, resolutely, determining that 
you will achieve a given end, victory, or result, and the power will 
increase every day ; the character be modified, dignified, and ex¬ 
alted, and the world consequently altered in its aspects toward 
whoever tries! 

X. The Law is inflexibly imperative. No woman can retain the 
love of a man, save under the operation of the following rules : 
1st. To be loved , she must be respected. Indelicacy destroys both ; 
she must make conscious and constant effort to merit and prove 
worthy of what she seeks. To be loved she must be lovely, lov¬ 
able, and must love. 2d. True love manifests itself not tempestuous¬ 
ly, spasmodically,— once in a while, forcefully, fitfully, demonstra¬ 
tively, and in words only, — but silently, evenly, steadily, and in 
actions , — trifles which, after all, make up life’s sum-total, and in 
the heart-interest she really takes in his welfare. It won’t do to 
tell a man you love him, yet take no pains to prove it; for he will 
not believe it, and is very apt to seek for it elsewhere; for it is 
human nature, this yearning for genuine love , and is as active in 
man as in woman. You “dress for company;” it will pay to 
sometimes dress for — husband ! Love is not lust refined ; it is a 
grand and hoty attraction. 

More hearts pine away in secret anguish, through unkindness 
from those who should be their comforters, than from any other 
calamity in life. Watch, then, and be what you ought to be, — a 
helpmeet for the partner. There’s a deal in the phrase, “She 
stoops to conquer.” Woman, remember this ! That the agonies of 
the soul of a murderer, gambler, and suicide in the world to come can 
never equal in intensity that of the man or woman, who, free from 
these sins, has yet been guilty of a greater, namely, the wilful 
waste of love either by self-pollution or debauchery. Virtue is its 
own reward ! the wilful waste here begets a woful want hereafter! — 
for of this fine love the soul elaborates its immortal body; and if 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


33 


you throw away the bricks, wherewith shall it build? If a soul 
can be blotted out of being, these vices are the means best adapted 
to that end ; for the loss of health hurts the body ; but the waste 
of love impoverishes the very soul itself ! Both sexes commit 
it, and both alike must pay the dreadful penalty, here, or in the 
great hereafter. 

Human nature is so constituted that in the fair race for power, 
the female can, if she will, invariably win; but never by using 
man’s or any other weapons than her own, — tenderness, affection, 
gentleness, and love. But in order that she may gain these powers 
in their fulness she must have health. There are painful facts , 
that ought to be brought before the whole people. Especially 
should the} 7, be urged on the attention of parents and teachers, 
and these facts are that pernicious, baneful, solitary habits in 
early j^outh, and in maturity also, go far toward, not only sapping 
the health, but undermining the mental and moral constitution, 
deranging the entire system even to the point of confirmed ner¬ 
vousness and total or partial insanity. 

Of course no medicine on earth can minister to a mind diseased, 
save where that disease originates in violated magnetic law ; then 
it can and does. I am satisfied that peace will reign in a healthy 
family ; that conjugal storms and estrangements spring mainly from 
want of light on three little points ; that ignorance of that light 
disorders the wife ; that this disorder affects her mind ; that it 
acts and reacts upon the husband and family; hence I cannot too 
strongly impress upon all women that their feelings, hence con¬ 
duct, toward their husbands, which often estranges them and mars 
the peace of families, is far more the result of caprice or whim, 
dependent upon deranged nervous forces, than of principle. Their 
grievances are as often imaginary as real; and therefore I bid them 
ask themselves that question frequently, and by strong will-efforts 
repress the vagary, and attend to the matter of physical restoration. 
Silence is often strength ! 

Full, free, and -reciprocal play of the magnetic spheres of two 
persons constitutes one phase or mood of love. Where these 
spheres repel, just in proportion as they do so, and thereby fall 
short of assimilation or blending, just in so far forth are both dis¬ 
contented and unhappy. “Coldness” begins and other persons 
become more attractive; of course ending in open or secret re- 

3 


* 


34 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


pugnance, and consequent miseiy, and what grows out of it. 
Boy or girl love seldom is enduring, and, as results, we see repul¬ 
sion, drinking, tobacco and opium using, the brothel and the race¬ 
course, anything for excitement, anything to kill the dreadful dis¬ 
temper of dissatisfaction. Fashion, frivolity, shopping, gossip, 
the theatre, church-going,—not for worship, but for forgetfulness, 
—temporary lethe and oblivion, on the other hand ; not seldom 
driving the sufferer to bad courses, oftentimes to suicide, and pre¬ 
mature death from disease, consumption of the lungs , because a 
heart is not filled. We have certain God-given rights, the greatest 
of which is that of being loved, truly, nobly, purely, for our own 
sakes, and not for what clings to us as a natural accident, as hair, 
skin, voice, beaut} T , or bank-bills; for in the currency of hearts all 
these are — trash! 

Oh, the bursting, breaking hearts in the world! hearts with 
aching voids which only love can fill, — not passion — but love ! 
* ^ell, there are millions of just such hearts in the world, martyrs, 
murmurless, whose secrets are unknown, pining hearts that yearn 
and long, and pray to heaven, — a heaven that oft seems leaden 
and stony to them, — pray and yearn for just a little human love, 

— asking for bread, receiving a stone ; yearning for affection, and 
met with brutal, unthinking, irrational passion! Woman-hearts, 
human hearts, that presently burst asunder, permitting tired souls 
to go from hell on earth to heavens of blissful — rest; for, since 
the dear mother died, love below has been theoretically offered, 
but practically denied , and all its holy rights ignored. What a 
sight of skeletons our houses contain! Why ? Because at best 
women are treated as a softer sort of men, and not as their nature 
demands. 

Love is a thing of soul ; but as souls are spiritual, they require 
bridges to span the dividing gulfs, and these bridges are our 
bodies, — our shape, color, hair, eyes, hands, — our totalities phys¬ 
ical, — and through the pl^sical spheres we generate and exhale, 
the finer magnetisms flow and fuse and blend the twain into one 
supremely happy dual being. 

“ Dear me, how strangely worn out and exhausted I feel! ” 

— “Indeed, sir. What have you been doing? Where have you 
been?”—“ Oh, nothing, only down to the house of a friend, where 
I met a strange lady, and sat by her side. She seemed quite lively 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


35 


and attracted toward me ; and the conversation happened to turn 
upon the alleged phenomena of table-turning; and, just for 
sport, we sat round in a circle, joining hands, and I declare that I 
hadn’t held the lady’s hand five minutes before all my strength 
left me, ftfid I came near fainting. I don’t know what caused the 
strange feeling; but this I* do know, that during the time I sat 
there I became more exhausted of vitality, life, spirit, strength, 
force, and power, than in any year’s labor of my life. And it all 
went to that strangely fascinating lady !” Well, interchange the 
pictures, and you have the strange experience of thousands, espe¬ 
cially during these last past twenty years. That woman was a 
vampire, and there are thousands of men of the same sort in soci¬ 
ety. They abound everywhere. They are human sponges, love- 
empty, and draw the precious fluid of life from all with whom 
they come in contact. The difference between this fatal attraction 
and a genuine passion and love lies in this. Such persons give 
nothing in return ! — vampires, they extract all and give nothir% ; 
hence the game is all winning on their side, all losing on yours. 
Such persons are generally such as were born of women who, 
during gestation, yearned for love from the father of the child, but 
yearned and longed in vain ; hence the new soul came into the 
world ahungered and athirst for that great food and drink 
whereon souls grow strong and fat. They are to be avoided. 
They are basilisks, and their glance is lingering death; and mad¬ 
ness, disease, insanity, result from their contact. Not infrequent!}" 
such persons set themselves up as medical oracles, human spiders 
rather, and in their foul webs thousands have been ruined. 

The test of a love attraction as to its reality, or counterfeit, is 
simple. Do I grow strong or weak ; healthy or the reverse ? As 
are the verdicts, so is the case. Hie Hhoda / hie Scdta! 

One day a gentleman invited the author of these pages to attend 
a female patient exclusive of all other business. The girl was 
empty. Six months’ attendance nearly killed the attendant. A 
European voyage only prolonged the attendant’s life, for up to that 
time the poor sick girl existed mainly on the life and vitality 
thus afforded. When the current was broken the patient died. 
Study these truths; there is a volume of wisdom to be obtained 
therein. 

I cut the subjoined scrap from a paper, and it suggested a 


3G 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


thought concerning the causes of much of the abuse heaped upon 
women, and that cause is jealousy : — 

“ Whatever else you may abuse, never abuse a woman. Always 
remember you had a mother, perhaps you have a sister, maybe a 
wife. It is cowardly, mean, unjust. If any act desen® s the pil¬ 
lory, then does this. The very fact of her sex should make her 
exempt from all that is coarse, unkind, or cruel. No genuine man 
ever yet abused a woman. As soon expect to see a dart of light¬ 
ning in the blue sky of June, a rose in the snow-bank of January, 
a gift from a miser, a great act from a mean soul, as a real man 
abusing a woman.” 

Now, if a woman suspects her husband or lover, she generally 
flies off into vehement anger, and pursues the identical course to 
make matters a great deal worse, for human nature is a very 
crooked stick. All the citizens of a town might not want to go 
outside of its limits in a month ; but you just pass a law that they 
shall not go, and every soul of them will quit within a day. 
Just so with husbands. If they get the name, they will be very 
likely to run after the game. I have a woman in my mind’s eye 
for whom every sacrifice was made by the man she called husband, 
yet that man was never allowed to even speak to another female, 
even in her presence, without being followed by a jealous storm 
that so embittered his whole life that death was preferable — even 
by suicide. He began by giving her the full volume of as earnest 
love as his high soul possessed ; and yet that woman outraged 
his whole being until he was glad to give her almost his last dol¬ 
lar and leave her for the sake of rest. What made the matter 
worse was that she was jealous of all women, not one of whom 
had at first the slightest power over him, but when driven from 
the home of his heart, he sought the society of one upon whom he 
never would have cast a thought but for the unreasonable jealousy 
in his home. 

Men — husbands — are often stone blind at the very time their 
eyes ought to be wide open. They — all men — are oblivious of 
the fact that all women have their moods. There are often sea¬ 
sons— especially pre and anti catamenial ones — wherein she 
feels the absolute necessity of endearment, caresses, affection, and 
pure, unsullied love. She wants, and ought to 66,'petted ! But 
just as soon as, by her endearments, she betrays this great neces- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


37 


sity of her higher, softer, diviner nature, the fool misunderstands 
her, and forthwith meets her with a storm of passion and its fear¬ 
ful exactions ; wherefrom come disgust, loathing, hatred, illness, 
and not .unfrequently incurable disease and death. These are 
holy seasons with woman, and whoever then desecrates the thrice 
holy sanctities of her nature commits a sin unpardonable; sows 
the winds, and by and by, if persisted in, is sure to reap the 
whirlwind. After all, a woman is something more and better than 
a machine. She is then supra-human, and is incarnating the 
glories of the empyreal galaxies, and ought to be treated accord¬ 
ingly;— tenderly, lovingly, kindly, and dearly, sweetly loved; 
and that, too, devoid of all passion or excitement. Impressions 
made upon her at that time , whether good or bad, are ineffacea¬ 
ble, eternal, and the wise man will understand this sublime 
fact, and profit accordingly. She is then like the shorn lamb, 
exposed to the pitiless peltings of fierce storms, whereof coarser 
man can have no conception. She seeks then to hide herself in 
the bosom of tenderness, pity, sympathy, and love; while all 
thought of passion or ardor is far from her pure, sweet, gentle, 
and trusting soul. 

Again: while bearing the precious freight of a new being — a 
priceless and immortal soul — she is subject to peculiar and strange 
moods, which ought to be met under standingly and with patience 
by the man who desires good fruit to grow upon the family tree, — 
either human or domestic. 

Dress is one of Love’s vehicles. If married people paid more* 
attention to it there would be less trouble than there is. Dress 
increases personal charms. Dimity and divinity go together. The 
woman who dresses “for company ,” but never for her husband, 
throws her treasures in the sea. As of the woman, so of the man. 
Trifles, I repeat, go to make up the sum of life; nor can we afford 
to neglect them. Love grows by attention ! 

Fidelity is truth to a genuine love! Love, grows by knightly, 
courtly deference for woman, on the part of man. And he who 
wanton^ violates her trust, or exposes her delicacy to rude 
shocks, is a suicidal fool, not worth a decent woman’s attention! 
Unwelcome marital embraces are very apt to develop poison, 
mental, social, affectional, physical. 

If one sees misery, one ought to sympathize therewith, and 


38 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


soothe the sufferer in his loving arms,— provided it is not some one 
else’s wife, and vice versa; in which case, careful talk , and care¬ 
ful feeling, is the balm to be applied; not too closely, however. 

Fashion is the science of appearances ; and all women have a 
right to reasonably conform to its dicta. A wise husband will con¬ 
cede this. 

Home should be where the heart is ; but instead of that, it is too 
often “ a saloon,” affording “refreshment and entertainment for 
man and beast,”—too frequently the latter, clad in broadcloth ! 

Love is spontaneous,— is not limited by laws other than its own, 
and they are recorded upon the tablets of every human heart. 

Adultery is of the heart, not only of the person. There can be 
no offence of that nature if the heart and affections are right. I 
have actually seen a virtuous courtesan, and have celebrated her 
in more than one of my books. I expect to see more. It is not 
difficult to conceive of such, for a woman may be driven thereto by 
the stress of circumstances, — the force of penury, or the penury of 
force. There is as much in condition as in position. A woman 
in one chemical or magnetic state may be able to resist any temp¬ 
tation brought to bear against her; j r et a change of atoms in her 
body may in five seconds so alter her resisting power as to cause 
her to fall from the slightest attack. So also is it with the sterner 
sex. Let us have a little more, charity. If the hidden scroll of 
our own lives should be revealed, most of us would be anything 
but proud or stilted over it. Let us learn to be just to all man¬ 
kind, and especially lenient to our mother’s sex! 

What means a kiss? — .an embrace? — the union aside from 
propagative ends? It means — an interchange and fusion of mag¬ 
netisms : a displacement of one and replacement of its own by the 
other. 

Perfect health is perfect love. A well man ought to be a good 
one. So of a woman. Wives should be brooded ! 

women’s rights. 

The right to wake when others sleep; 

The right to watch, the right to weep; 

The right to comfort in distress; 

The right to soothe, the right to bless; 

The right the widow’s heart to cheer, 

The right to dry an orphan’s tear; 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY 


39 


The right to feed and clothe the poor, 

The right to teach them to endure; 

The right, — when other friends have flown, 
And left the sufferer all alone, — 

To kneel that dying couch beside, 

And meekly point them o’er the tide; 

The right a happy home to make, 

In any clime for Love’s sweet sake; 

Rights such as these are all we ask, 

Until in bliss our souls shall bask. 


Many years ago a lady, — Mrs. Washburn, of Worcester, 
Mass., — now happily in heaven, was speaking with me on the 
subject of these writings, and she handed me the following lines 
defining love. They are very good : — 

“ Love is not love that ever wanes; 

Pure love, true love, the soul retains, 

That fulness it may gain. 

(< Love sees the blessing pouring down, 

In storms and tempests, though they frown, 

And bravely bears the pain. 

“ True love shrinks not from foes severe; 

It feels no hatred, knows no fear; 

But rests in conscious might. 

“ Its power to conquer none can know; 

While other weapons they would show, 

It dares to do the right. 


(< It smiles serene when hatred cowers; 

Grows strong in persecution’s hours, 

And boldly owns its own. 

t( Defiant of all else beside, 

It stands, for God is on its side; 

In God it can be known. 

“ God lives in him whom this love keeps, — 

Moves in his soul’s great deep of deeps; — 

His being is divine. 

“ All filled with an Almighty power, 

He cries in his great trial hour, 

‘ Forgive all foes of mine ! ’ ” 


40 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


The difference between species is only a difference in the ar¬ 
rangement of particles, and thus, in a line, is solved the problem 
of the ages, — one that has probably called forth more brain 
effort than any other in natural history, and led Darwin to astound 
the lettered world with his “ Origin of Species.” This discovery 
of mine — which will, but not herein, be elaborated — not only 
accounts for the various kinds, sorts, and orders of trees and other 
vegetables, but obtains of the animal and human kingdoms as 
well. A very high chemical authority says, in speaking of the main 
idea just broached, that molecular differences alone determine 
ranks and species : — 

u Is it possible to change one metal into another? Many of the 
alchemists wasted their lives in the vain attempt to solve this 
problem. It is common to ridicule the alchemists as absurd vis¬ 
ionaries, and their work as laborious folly. Such statements are, 
no doubt, properly used in regard to some of them, but they do 
injustice to a large number who are earnest seekers after truth, 
though holding mistaken opinions. The alchemist considered gold 
and silver to be higher and nobler in their nature than the other or 
baser metals; but the difference was one of degree only, and 
essentially the base metals were composed of the same substances 
as the higher, but differently combined, or else contaminated with 
some degrading constituent. In order to accomplish the change, 
or purification, which was to transmute the baser into the higher 
metal, it was necessary to obtain the u philosopher’s stone,” which 
had the power of instantaneously bringing about the desired end. 
The possession of the philosopher’s stone was the goal which the 
•sincere and ardent alchemist, undaunted by the failures of others, 
and unwearied by years of profitless labor, still hoped to attain, 
and which always seemed to him to be almost within liis grasp. 
Some claimed that thev had succeeded in discovering this ‘ bride- 
groom of the metals.’ A few even pretended to give processes 
for making it; but they took care to make them entirely unintelli¬ 
gible, by the use of a mystical phraseology. Nevertheless, the 
alchemist’s work, though wrongly directed, was not entirely use¬ 
less. Dissolving, precipitating, distilling, subliming, constantly 
causing different substances to react upon each other, the}" could 
hardly help making discoveries and observations whose meaning 
and value were unknown to them, but which were afterwards to 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


41 


exercise an important influence on the development of a truer 
chemistry. Such is always the case in natural science : from the 
labors of a large number of comparatively obscure observers, we 
become able to deduce the expression of a natural law, or the true 
explanation of a class of phenomena. 

“ As true chemistry advanced, alchemy gradually disappeared, 
and its followers diminished in numbers, until finally the transmu¬ 
tation of the metals was believed only by the ignorant. But the 
science of chemistry is a progressive one, and has been and is 
constantly changing; the views of the chemical constitution of 
substances held by the best chemists have undergone numerous 
alterations ; and now, long after the time of the alchemists, chem¬ 
ists are beginning to hold opinions in a certain degree resembling 
the old alchemical notions; or, to speak more definitely, we can 
see that the distinction between the so-called elementary or simple 
substances may not be as wide as we have been wont to regard it, 
and that we may, some time, discover the causes of the differences 
between them. In the present article, it is our intention to briefly 
mention some of the arguments which seem to lead us in this 
direction. 

“Between the alchemical opinions and those of the present day 
we notice at once a great distinction. The alchemists knew noth¬ 
ing of the elements, as we st}de them ; neither had they any 
conception of the constitution of salts. At the present time we 
are acquainted with sixty-five elements; that is to say, there are 
sixty-five bodies that we cannot now show to be compounds. It 
is important to notice that the difference between two elements is 
often very slight. For instance, the distinction between nickel and' 
cobalt is by no means a marked one ; they always occur together, 
and have man}^ common properties. Now we know that a very 
minute quantity of extraneous matter will often entirely change 
the properties or mark the reactions of many substances. We 
have a familiar and striking illustration of this in iron; a very 
little sulphur or phosphorus is able to seriously injure the quality 
of a very large amount of metal. The difference between the 
various kinds of iron (cast and malleable iron, steel, etc.) is caused 
by the abstraction or addition ofpmall quantities of carbon; in¬ 
deed, perfectly pure metallic iron in any quantity has never been 
made. Iron is itself closely allied to cobalt and nickel; they 


42 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


always occur together in meteorites, and are the only magnetic 
metals. It is not impossible that, as chemical processes are made 
more accurate, future operators will find these three metals have a 
common basis, differently modified in the different cases. Similar 
close resemblances are found between other metals. We know 
that while our analytical methods have been greatly improved, yet 
much more labor is required to make them what they should be. 

• 

Many of our separations are imperfect, and some substances can¬ 
not be separated from one another with our present means. The 
chemist engaged in research is groping his way in the dark, and is 
constantly liable to arrive at erroneous conclusions. Many of the 
best chemists have been led into error. Wohler mistook a com¬ 
pound of boron and nitrogen for boron itself. Rose thought he 
had discovered in certain rare minerals the acid oxides of two new 
metals, niobium and pelopium, and it was only after years of la¬ 
bor he found that his pelopic acid was another oxide of niobium. 
At the present time there is a bitter controversy between two 
European chemists concerning the existence of a new element, 
ilmenium, which one of them claims he has discovered, while the 
other stoutly denies its existence, declaring the ilmenic acid of the 
first to be a mixture of titanic and niobic acids. Many times 
have discoveries been announced, and indeed been accepted and 
believed, until more careful investigation has disproved them. So 
the time may come when chemists wall discover the causes of the 
differences between nickel and cobalt, iron and chromium, calcium 
and magnesium, etc., etc., and then they will be able to transmute 
one into the other. 

“ But the most important consideration connected with the whole 
subject is that which presents itself when we speak of the molec¬ 
ular constitution of substances. Let us note here in passing 
the distinction between an atom and a molecule. An atom is the 
smallest quantity of an element, indivisible by chemical means, 
which can exist in a compound body; a molecule is a group of 
atoms forming the smallest quantity of a simple or compound 
body which can exist in a free state, or is able to take part in or 
result from a reaction.* Now we are acquainted with many sub¬ 
stances that occur in differentPUmolecula 1 conditions (allotropic 
states) ; that is to say, their atoms are differently grouped under 

* Wurtz. Introduction to Chemical Philosophy. 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


43 


different circumstances. A substance passing from one allotropic 
state to another will often change all its properties, and, to all 
appearance, become an entirely different body. We have an ex¬ 
cellent illustration of this statement in the two states of phospho¬ 
rus. Red phosphorus and ordinary phosphorus are so unlike that 
we should consider them distinct substances, if we were not able 
to prove their identity by converting one into the other. We 
account for the difference between these two forms by supposing 
the molecule of the red to be twice as great as that of the ordinary 
variety. We have instances of the same body appearing in differ¬ 
ent modifications in sulphur, carbon, and silicon. In view of these 
facts, chemists ask themselves if. with our present means, we can 
show in one case that two apparently distinct bodies are but modi¬ 
fications of one and the same substance, shall we not with more 
extended facilities be able to prove the same of other bodies? 
For example, there are the four halogens, — fluorine, chlorine, bro¬ 
mine, and iodine; they closely resemble each other in their man¬ 
ner of combination. One thing connected with them may be 
worthy of notice, and that is, the relation which perhaps exists 
between their equivalent numbers and their physical condition. 
Fluorine is a gas, equivalent 19 ; chlorine a vapor, easily liquefied, 
equivalent 35.5 ; bromine a liquid, equivalent 80 ; iodine a solid, 
equivalent 127 : the ratio between these numbers is pretty nearly 
as 1, 2, 4, 6. The idea at once occurs to us that these four are 
but one substance in different molecular conditions ; the molecule 
of iodine being six times condensed, that is, having six times as 
many atoms as the molecule of fluorine; that of chlorine twice 
condensed, and that of bromine four times. It is evident that we 
have by this hypothesis a reason why these elements present a 
regular gradation from a solid to a gas. 

“ Again, as an illustration of the importance of a knowledge of 
the grouping of the atoms in a molecule of any substance, let us 
observe that we are acquainted with many instances where two or 
more bodies composed of the same number of atoms and not dis¬ 
tinguishable from each other by analysis are yet entirely distinct. 
It is only from the study of the molecular and atomic constitution 

of bodies that we will^ever att^n the transmutation of the 

• • 

metals. 

“ Yety many laborers are even now working in this field. This 


44 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


subject has engrossed more or less of the thoughts of many of the 
best chemists. Some have even carried their speculations so far 
as to advance the theory that there is but one universal kind of 
matter, appearing in different forms ; but all theorizers would do 
well to imitate Faraday, who, incessantly theorizing, yet con¬ 
sidered his theories worthless without experimental support. 
Faraday himself, not long before he died, was engaged upon ex¬ 
periments looking toward the transmutation of the metals. Study 
and experiment are the only means by which we can attain our 
end; and let us remember, that while the alchemist labored to 
obtain wealth for himself, the chemist of this day has as his no¬ 
bler object the increase of human knowledge, and therefore the 
benefit of all mankind.” 

Let us glance a moment at crystals. A snowflake is a crystal, 
so is a quartz rock ; a granite boulder is a crystal, so is a diamond ; 
and the only difference between them is simply a different arrange¬ 
ment of their respective particles, which, too, accounts for the 
apparent difference of the several constituents that compose them. 
Now, one human being differs, materially, morally, and in all 
other respects, from another, only by reason of a slight difference 
in the arrangements of the material crystallic points or atoms that 
go to make up the man; and, while two men ma}^, generally , re¬ 
semble each other, yet, specifically, they may be very far apart or 
dissimilar, simply and only because one man is made up of multi- 
angular atoms, — coarse, gross, unrefined; while the other is 
composed of higher, finer, or more ripe and ascended points, cells, 
crystals, and atoms. Ambition, love, taste, appetite, passion, 
capacity, energy, power, — all depend upon the more or less per¬ 
fection of these particles, and their chemical completeness or 
ripeness. Let me illustrate this point familiarly : Two drops of 
semen are, so far as human chemistry is concerned, precisely 
alike; yet one shall be the germ of a genius, the other become 
a Hottentot, murderer, knave, fool, politician, or some such human 
nuisance. Again, chemical conditions determine future organism. 
Starved cattle cannot produce superior offspring; unripe seeds 
bring forth sickly plants ; while well-fed John and happy Betsey 
have finer children than half-served Tom* and Sarah, even though 
the latter have the advantage, on the score of refinement. Again, 
ripe semen produces ripe children. It cannot ripen in the body 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


45 


of a debauchee or human goat. It is troublesome ; hence is worse 
than wasted. It is not possible for a low organization to give 
birth to a high or fine one, albeit such organizations often greatly 
improve upon themselves, and produce offspring greatly their own 
superiors ; yet no one could expect a race-horse to issue from a 
cart-drab, or a fine-limbed courser to spring from the loins of a 
brew-horse. A dog is dog all over, and so is a doggish man. 
The dog-nature lurks in every particle of his being, and is sure to 
be transmitted, with less or greater force, to his posterity, in exact 
proportion as the dog-nature slept or preponderated during the 
act that launched a soul into being; and when coarse parents 
produce finer children, it proves that outer circumstances were 
strongly in the ascendant over the inherited bias of the general 
dogativeness. A heart-woman will, even under bad conditions, 
produce a better child than a mere heady one, even if the latter 
is capable of maternity, which, happily, is seldom the case ; for, 
it is well known that savages increase far less rapidly than civil- 
izees, and lucky it is for the world that it is so, else chaos would 
soon come again. Everything on earth is chemical, and under 
chemical law, — even human morals, — for nearly all our sins are the 
result of chemical .incompatibilities all the way along. Any wo¬ 
man, who is kept contented, happy, loved , during pregnancy, will 
carry ever } 7 stage of the gestative process a great deal farther than 
would be possible under the reverse state of conjugal and domes¬ 
tic affairs, and the consequence will be a child to be proud of. 
But let her be worried, and she will not fail to hurry her work, and 
that will be a babe of inferior make-up, in all respects. 

A negress, in Charleston, South Carolina, bore a monkey-boy, 
because the natural processes were arrested at that stage of em- 
brionic development. Another negress was exceedingly happy 
during that period, and she gave a “ Blind Tom ” to the world and 
Qod, — a boy who was the very quintessence of musical genius. 
Now, had her intellect been cherished and nurtured, the boy 
would have been a mental prodigy as well. Whatever of talent 
or power the writer hereof possesses is all owing to the peculiar 
mental conditions of the dear mother who bore him, — so far as 
power goes, while the angular impress of his father will never be 
effaced, within the limits of this earthly life. Here, then, is the 


46 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


law, or principle; and, if it be fnlly heeded and attended to at tlie 
right time, the world will be the better for it. 

Failure and success are a part of life. We all succeed, and we 
all fail. The brave and resolute are topmost. The stout-hearted 
go up ; the faint-hearted go down. Atlas, with the world on his 
broad shoulders, is pluck, persistency, success. The head the 
world believes in is — ahead. The daring and determined go in 
this direction. Their route is not all sunshine and pleasure, but 
it has a good share. Whether we succeed or fail — do something 
or nothing —depends upon the individual. Faith, and pluck, and 
work will do for a man all that can be done. If he fails with these, 
it is a failure worth all the successes the world ever saw. 

Women are sometimes censured for being old maids. It is too 
often an unjust judgment, and merits compliment rather than cen¬ 
sure. The world is under great indebtedness to this class for no 
little of its best intellect, heart, and good sense. They live to 
honor the community and themselves ; and perpetuate themselves 
in their own good examples, which is better than through the 
channel of questionable blood; and yet chronic maidenhood is to 
be regretted, because no woman can reach perfection save through 
the maternal realm of her glorious nature ! 

The color of a thing often depends upon the sort of eyes that 
look upon it. A man troubled with the spleen or dyspepsia sees 
no gold in the summer sun, no pleasing tints in the unfolding rose, 
and nothing attractive in a pair of virgin lips. Per contra, one 
with good digestion and an active flow of blood sees beauty in 
almost everything. 

All human beings, all human organizations alike, generate an 
element called love (in this connection I am writing on the physi¬ 
cal plane), and if they be coarse it follows that the great 
chemical result will be coarse too; and, therefore, their likes and 
dislikes, tastes, appetites, fancies, affections, loves, pursuits, 
hopes, pleasures, ambitions, all will correspond. You cannot 
make silk purses of pig’s ears, nor a rough, coarse, brutal man or 
woman love with the power, refinement, delicacy, intensity, and 
soul-fervor, that a finer-moulded one is capable of. And yet, how¬ 
soever coarse a love may be, it is capable of refinement and puri¬ 
fication to a very great degree; mainly by thinking, wishing, 
willing one’s self on a nobler, higher plane ; dwelling less on self, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


47 


lust, brutal, coarse, tow-cloth joys, and more upon religion, science, 
soul, art, tenderness, manhood, womanhood, charity, justice, 
mercy; all that is good, grand, high, beautiful, and true. So, 
by sure but imperceptible degrees the subject ascends, refines, en¬ 
larges, and improves, and in proportion thereto the intenser love- 
joys follow! No sensible person prefers to dwell in the cellar. 
But there are millions who live whole lives in affection’s cellars, — 
in the human kitchen, — and seldom venture into life’s dr a win o'- 
room or parlor, where angel-guests like to come, and still more sel¬ 
dom in the sky-observatory of the soul. Go up, my friends ! go 
up. 

Miserable are you, Oman or woman? Why? 

He : “ She’s sickly.” Probably. Cause : too much of a muchness, 
too few caresses, pettednesses, tendernesses, embraces, kindli¬ 
nesses, and too much coarseness, heedlessnesses, lovelessness, 
passion ; all work and no play! Result: haggardness, sallow, 
sunken cheeks, hollow eyes, aching heart, pining soul, hungry 
love , consumption; else seduction,—victim perfectly willing. 
Can you wonder if she falls before the magnetic storm from the 
soul of some man full to the brim of what she wants, or that she 
even invites some man to occupy the place in her heart that you 
ought to, but do not, occupy ? Or, reverse the picture. Perhaps 
your wife is full to the brim of ardor, while you are cold as ice. 
I knew a wife, of thirty years, in Worcester, Mass., whose husband 
had never once kissed her. She had a large and generous soul; 
he was cold as snow. Result: a small but smothered hell; and 
all the more dreadful to endure because its fires were pent. Well, 
you, husband, provide all things for, and sincerely love, your wife, 
perhaps. Well, why don’t you study her nature; caress, fondle, 
pet, and love her more than you ever did ? It will pay ! — He Oh, 

I never thought of that! ” Well, think now and do it, and then no 
man can occupy your place, or passional lover withdraw her soul 
from yours. 

She : “ I can’t bear him ; there’s no good in him ; I wish I was 
dead, — or him ; then I might be happy.” Stop! lady; not so 
fast. I take it for granted that you know his faults. Do you 
know your own? A man is very often just what a woman chooses 
to make him, — ignorantly, perhaps. Well, have you ever sincerely 
tried to win him up to a nobler place in life? Try ! Love, caresses, 


48 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


persistent tenderness are the most wonderful solvents known. 
Have yon shown him true wifeliness ? or have you fallen into the 
popular error that all a wife’s duty consists in keeping house, and 
tacitly doing from habit all he demands of you? If so, turn 
squarely around and sail on the other tack. You’ll soon win him 
from the arms and charms of all rivals. Study his weak points, 
and attack him there. 

He and she now sa} 7 : “But love depends to a great extent upon 
the congenialities of personal magnetisms. We repel each other; 
how is it possible for us to assimilate?” I have already answered 
that question in another form. The will can effect wonders. 
Will therefore to love each other and the good thought and act will 
be an alterative, utterly changing the entire mind, spirit, soul, 
thought, and body. Not ..-in a day or week, but in a very little 
time. 

Not one tenth of our marital difficulties are real; or if real, but 
that can be outgrown by persistent trying. While a man and wife 
are socially, maritally, or magnetically hostile, seduction is not 
difficult to those who are loose in that respect and adepts in the 
art; for whoever then approaches magnetically or sympathetically 
nearer than the mate, pushes that mate further off, and in nine 
cases in ten the attraction toward an “ outsider ” is merely physi¬ 
cal or magnetic, but is too frequently mistaken for love and genu¬ 
ine affection. Gratify the passion thus engendered, and the 
results are appalling, for just so soon as the passional and mag¬ 
netic storm is over, a worse chaos looms up again. 

He comes too near who comes to be denied! She is unwomanly 
who purposely tempts a man. They are barbarous who seek to 
destroy a bond which, though iron, can be changed to one of silver 
or gold, wreathed and rose-entwined. 

Divorce ought ever be the last resort. But our laws on that 
point ought to be so modified as to afford relief without either 
forcing one or other of the parties to crime or public litigation 
and indecent exposure of domestic secrets. 

u Nothing comes of nothing” is not true, since an empty-headed 
fool often causes uncounted trouble. 

In these days of Spiritualism there exist countless pretenders 
to the strange science, who counterfeit the mental phenomena and 
use the sacred thing as a cloak under which to hoodwink, impose 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


49 


upon, and swindle the public. Their signs and advertisements 
disfigure the houses and the press, and their influence is consump¬ 
tive and cancerous to the last degree. Consult one of these 
harpies on any subject you may like to, and the chances are ten 
to one that they make the astounding discovery that you are improp¬ 
erly married; that your wife or husband — as the case maybe — 
is not adapted to you ; that there’s no affinity, in short, that you 
are — what perhaps you never before dreamed of — the most un¬ 
happy and miserable matron or benedict under the sun. Such 
devils have, under the specious guise of philanthropy, broken up 
thousands of theretofore comparatively happy families,— more than 
even rum itself. And poor, sill} 7 ', weak wives t^o readily hearken 
to their villanous suggestions, thenceforth fancy themselves the 
most wretched of victims, and hades comes quickl} r . I have 
known of scores of families thus broken up ; for hundreds of these 
people infest society, and their infamous work may be seen on all 
hands,— false pretenders to spiritual inspiration! Husbands 
consulting one of them are crammed with the same sort of stuff 
till the}" believe it, and thousands of desertions and divorce suits 
attest the result. These seers see too much. Nothing they say 
should be relied on. They talk to hear themselves, and set up 
sham claims to wisdom and unusual sagacity with the smallest im¬ 
aginable capital. They excite ardent hopes, abnormal cravings, 
and wild desires in the minds of their deluded victims, which 
never can be reached ; and when these victims realize this fact, 
misery beyond calculation results, happiness is gone forever, and 
a premature grave very often ends the dreadful tragedy. A 
proper punishment for these impostors would be to make them 
undergo the dreadful tortures they impose upon others. 

I11 Boston I daily read the advertisements of several of that 
class, and desiring to get in the “ring” to find them out, I sought 
an opportunity and made the acquaintance of several. One of 
them set up the business of making “love powders” of a root 
called “ dragon’s blood,” at a dollar a pinch ; and she afterwards, 
finding that I was practising a branch of chemistry, solicited me 
to furnish an amative excitant for her to sell, informing me that 
theretofore she had dosed her dupes and victims with a deadly 
blistering compound at five dollars an ounce. Pretending to 
enter into her views, I soon learned that she made and sold 
4 


50 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


lozenges of gum and sugar, well sprinkled with the above deadly 
blister in its dry state, and that she drove a thriving trade in that 
line, and as a pander to the meanest passion man is possessed of. 

Boston is a moral city, and yet its daily literature is tarnished 

• 

with public notices of lechers in search of mistresses, — doctors 
and doctresses who want to kill unborn babies at so much per 
caput ,— five dollars is the standard price ! — of women in want of 
keepers, and a thousand other infernal abominations, all slightly 
disguised yet so plain that the merest simpleton perfectly com¬ 
prehends the whole thing at a single glance ; and yet all this hor¬ 
ror in a city famed to be the most puritanic and moral on the 
surface of God’s habitable globe ! Bah! its moral filth exceeds 
that of either Sodom or Gomorrah ! 

As a relief from the fearful picture allow me here to present 
you with the heart song, written by myself in New Orleans, 
where I served during part of the late rebellion. 


Lovo mo, love me in the morning, 

When the light breaks on the world, 

And crimson glories, sky adorning, 

Wave their banners, all unfurled, — 

Golden banners, light so pearly! — 
Lovo me in the morning early. 


Lovo mo when the sun is flashing, 
Rippling seas of love and light; 

Lovo mo when his flames are dashing 
Death to darkness and to night; 

Love mo gently, truly, sweetly, 
Lovo me nobly and completely. 


Lovo mo in the even-tide, 

When God’s starry eyes look down; 

Or tempests on the air shall ride, 

And threat’ning storms in anger frown; 
Then draw mo gently to thy breast, 
And soothe my timid soul to rest. 

Love mo when my cheek is fading, 

And my sparkling eyes grow dim, 

And flecks of gray my hair are shading, — 
My form no^onger lithe and trim. 

Love mo when no longer young 
End the race as you begun. 







l yv ~ _\ •;> i:i>i ~x h: > tof.t 


51 


l.-r« iK ▼ atj lif? 

-12*1 It 5C0.1 55 wW ~ 

T j r.rjr — iasi '*5:i jd 

Oil l!l<; it«r : s 5 s«*i si. "i. 


—-f; Ti 1 '^till il'i S'vtl * 2 »£ >t —tf-r, 
_>- r'i 3 L>i ' i idii— i_Tlin. 


Tie greai teiAsicy of Amrmis :s to ’onste :her:ssl■---< Tie 

x&xlera civilijees. oi either peiAer. ir? hke unjuaoA i coses. iee> 

ngierf fittfetif *iy. wkip nr |—, hit m jpiat deal of curb aad 

ckck ra»; and even then aoi adUbn the get tike hit, 

aid iT^v e X? so*ae*x;y to m. awn,. riys m. ec:nl. 

it i bceih-ieclx rate of Tie r v^. *r*A old too. vem 

^ <* ^ » 

often fargit that p n vaon^ s tide will one day ehb as vdl as &>w. 
n l my ii~e sorry irre.S£3 iiii ail dry a poo. the re;k< o: dis¬ 
aster, dwiast, physical ami n*»Ml impotence* insanity, orvorae. 
ere tile’s T ov ag e be normally half ever. If roe donhi it jest 
loci iron .I yoa upon the tei tixms&ad ** »Kcfe o: 

non sad woo*, to :o m: c-erv dav. stranded. raiwi — ^ili- 

• «• 


iag pent honraei, f "f"g ip e thK, scarce forty yens old, dole- 
ill y —£i ii their way thrciih the —orl . — use oily ;:y _s the 
in linos o:‘ Ii r i s —<e. zxv*i ills pooe o :: forever. 

>’«tIt ill oi is ire IccdI si* cs to s; m Aomin: rorci. — 

** a. 

noiey. ime. pine. nirroisiiss- jrloL Till iroctt resisting 
the tt derfl!* TW a m a conp anhid r e as y tasfc, presided he 
came :i irocer. mil she re. ’■ita :: is hx:s. si-A so ini. ill 

n a a. 


complete : bet ’■Ten he ittichs i an or woman tiruii To 
passions, i i nf f iiltr anatheans m lfli, as it is to-db ire i 
Heaven! that a—at of cmngf,, cave, vatehMaess, persistence. 


sesnift dk lees 


% re*: 


i .re to 


s . ess ilir 


ceit laic 


Ve eaen T of hum —fil nA vune I esiocciT ~ v n is of 
» *■ *• 

late years, in this tend age* it aitarlT ns panoplied eb u |Ub> 
xx lie ~ armor. AiueA by lexer s: may ** scenic reasons, 
axioms. listocl: parallels. sniarr hyr*xiieses. amir exmrles. 
nA n> jen ones too. iri“i fiixa oar bara-yards. mainly 1 To 
le mstress :r mster : : yonrseif Is i serTce :i:ier A mcclt to 
:i;r:ccrilv itonfl T o*iag to tio li^ of tnisnissin oi caii> 
rlfs, >>r the ^eikiess-es c: tie r.irei:s ire siTrel ::o *ry the :ih- 
Ar - 1 :: :i: i I :i: isiemns. Yes. Mired the deed can he 
AezsieA by :ie or t»o rater-nosters cct —lei ::r :-i_s:s le ises 




52 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


the amorous glances of a right-down handsome woman, or an 
accomplished and magnetic man, Heaven help the poor besieged ! 
Yesterday a resolution was taken to not yield to the tempting of 
some besetting sin again. To-day there was a slight fail; like 
the servant girl’s baby, — it was only a little one ! To-morrow it 
will be the same old story, so strong is human weakness. Cold 
water and spare diet are good agents just then. Watching is good ; 
so is prayer, — especially watching! “ Lead us not into tempta¬ 
tion ” is capital, so far as it goes ; and I am not one who believes in 
fighting, for running may be the wiser policy ; and so, “ get away, 
from temptation ” is better, provided one keeps away ; for in these 
loose days, just as surely as a tempted man or woman stops to 
“ consider about it,” or to “ argue the point,” the game is up and 
“ I’ve fallen again ! ” as certain as that ducks will take to w T ater, 
or guinea fowls to green peas. There’s a little concupiscent devil 
running loose about the world, getting up cases of crim. con. and 
divorce to feed lazy lawyers on. If we resist the devil he will 
certainly flee from us, and just as certainly “flee” back again. 
The safest plan is to “ flee ” yourself, and stay flown. 

Amative passion seldom exists half as strongly in woman as in 
man ; when it does, in either case, its functions and offices are good 
in proper places and under right conditions. In leading strings, 
restraint, it is a good servitor at life’s feast; but let it loose, un¬ 
fasten the moral leash, and soon will it get the upperliand, and 
become an inexorable and insatiable tyrant, acknowledging no law, 
human or divine. Keep wide awake and watch it, and it ambles 
beautifully along life’s broadway; but let it once catch you nap¬ 
ping, and you will very speedily find out that the steed that carries 
you is galloping toward perdition at a fearful pace, bent on land¬ 
ing its rider in the midst of Gehenna in the briefest possible space 
of time. 

Very few “philosophers” have common sense enough to last 
them over night. Keep cool! is the touch-word, provided it be 
well done. 


“ My soul thy secret image keeps; 

My midnight dreams are all of thee; 
For nature then in quiet sleeps 

And silence broods on land and sea. 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


53 


Oh, in that still, mysterious hour, 

How oft from waking dreams I start, 

To find thee but a fancy flower, 

Thou cherished idol of my heart! 

Thou hast each thought and dream of mine,— 
Have I in turn one thought of thine ? 

u Forever thine my dreams will be, 

AVhato’er may be my fortunes here; 

I ask not love, I claim from thee 
One only boon, a gentle tear. 

May blessed visions from above 
Play brightly round thy happy heart, 

And may the beams of peace and love 
Ne’er from thy glowing soul depart. 

Farewell! my dreams are still of thee, — 

Hast thou one gentle thought of me ? 

u My joys like summer birds may fly; 

My hopes like summer blooms depart; 

But there’s one flower that cannot die, — 

Thy holy memory in my heart. 

No dews that flower’s cup may fill; 

No sunlight to its leaves be given; 

But it will live and flourish still, 

As deathless as a thing of heaven. 

My soul tneets thine, unasked, unsought, — 
Hast thou for me one tender thought? 

“ Farewell! farewell my far-olf friend, 

Between us broad blue oceans flow, 

And forests wave, and plains extend 
And mountains in the sunlight glow. 

The winds that breathe upon thy brow 
Are not the same that breathe on mine; 

Th» starbeams shining on thee now 
Are not the same that on me shine; 

But memory’s spell is on me yet; 

Canst thou the holy past forget ? 

“ The bitter tears that thou and I 

May shed, where’er by anguish bowed, 

Exhaled into the noontide sky, 

May meet and mingle in the cloud; 

And thus, my much-loved friend, though we 
Far, far apart must live and move, 

Our souls, when God shall set them free, 

Can mingle in a world of lovo. 

This were an ecstasy to me !— 

Say, would it be a joy to thee ? 


54 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


There spoke the true woman heart. Don’t you think so, dear 
reader? If not, read it over. 

There’s a great deal of common sense in this scrap: — 

“ Mr. Stomach sends his respects to Mr. Brain, requesting him, 
if convenient, not to undertake any strong intellectual effort after 
a hearty dinner ; as lie wishes to bring the strongest possible con¬ 
centration of vital power upon the meal just consigned to him, for 
its proper digestion.” 

Wonders at home by familiarity cease to excite astonishment, 
and hence it happens that many know but little about the “ house 
we live in”—the human bod}'. We look upon a house from the 
outside, just as a whole or unit, never thinking of the many rooms, 
the curious passages, and the ingenious internal arrangements of 
the house, or of the wonderful structure of the man, the harmony 
and adaptation of all his parts. In the human skeleton at matu¬ 
rity, there are one hundred and sixty-five bones. The muscles are 
over fivt hundred in number. The length of the alimentary canal 
is about thirty-two feet. The amount of blood in an adult aver¬ 
ages thirty pounds, or full one-fiftli of the entire weight. The 
heart is six inches in length and four inches in diameter, and beats 
seventy times per minute, four thousand two hundred times per 
hour, one hundred thousand eight hundred per day, thirt} r -six mil¬ 
lion seven hundred and seventy-two thousand times per year, two 
billions five hundred and sixty-five millions four hundred and 
forty thousand in three-score and ten, and at each beat two and a 
half ounces of blood are thrown out of it, one hundred and seventy- 
five ounces per minute, six hundred and fifty-six pounds per hour, 
seven and three-fourth tons per day. All the blood in the body 
passes through the heart in three minutes. This little organ, by 
its ceaseless industry, lifts the enormous weight of three hundred 
and seventy millions seven hundred thousand two hundred tons. 
The lungs will contain about one gallon of air, at their usual de¬ 
gree of inflation. We breathe on an average twelve hundred 
times per hour, inhale six hundred gallons of air, or twenty-four 

thousand gallons per day. The aggregate surface of the air-cells 
— 

of the lungs exceeds twenty thousand square inches, an area very 
nearly equal to the floor of a room twelve feet square. The aver¬ 
age weight of the brain in an adult male is three pounds and eight 
ounces ; of a female, two pounds and four ounces. The nerves are 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


55 


all connected with it, directly or by the spinal marrow. These 
nerves, together with their branches and minute ramifications, ex¬ 
ceed twenty-two millions in number, forming a “body guard” 
outnumbering by far the greatest army ever marshalled! The 
skin is composed of three layers, and varies from one-fourth to 
one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Its average area in an adult 
is estimated to be two thousand square inches. The atmospheric 
pressure being about fourteen pounds to the square inch, a person 
of medium size is subjected to a pressure of forty thousand pounds. 
Each square inch of skin contains four thousand seven hundred 
sweating tubes or perspiratory pores, each of which may be likened 
to a little drain tile one-fourth of an inch long, making an aggre¬ 
gate length of the entire surface of the body of three hundred and 
fifty-eight thousand feet, or a tile-ditch for draining the body 
almost seventy miles long. Man is made marvellously. Who is 
eager to investigate the curious, to witness the wonderful works 
of Omnipotent Wisdom, let him not wander the wide worlO round 
to seek them, but examine himself. Now, if this machine gets out 
of order, as it does unless love keeps it right, how is life to be 
other than a gloomy vale of bitterness and tears? Can it? 

Laughter is a good thing. It has credit for adding length to the 
days of man. This credit is due. Laughter does a good thing for 
the species. Men are better for it; ditto women. We don’t like 
a person who never laughs ; we do like one who does laugh. The 
chances are that the latter will be ten times as good as the former. 
The chap that don’t laugh — how can you trust hftn? He may be 
a saint, but he is a dark and suspicious one. Besides, laughter is 
a tonic, and everybody needs something of this sort. Moral: 
cotton to laughers ; turn your back severely on those who never 
open their mouth, except to utter a melancholic moan, or drivel a 
tomb-like warning. 

Be sure and have the heart right. All else is sure to come 
rio-ht, including the head. There is never a weak head attached to 
a good and strong heart. The thing is impossible. As well ex¬ 
pect a white face on a black body. Nature doesn’t make ’em that 
way. The main thing is the heart. It is the central part. That 
correct, everything is correct. Love does not change the matter. 
It is simply an exchange, — one good thing for another of the same 
sort. People’s hearts are often perverted, shrivelled, cold, motion.- 


56 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


less, and very manjr, it would seem, have none at all. In the first 
place, have a heart; then have it in the right place; after that 
you will be all right. 

Scandal, if an invention, is sure, like children, to grow rapidly. 
The more improbable, the faster its growth, and the more readily 
credited by a majority of people. Folks let fiction in at the front 
door, with all sorts of ceremony, but kick fact out at the back door 
without any. 

Sunshine is good; so is cloud. No man — we will not say 
woman — can live on sugar. Wheat without chaff would be mon¬ 
strous. All good has streaks of evil, and for the end that good 
may be presented in cheerful contrast to evil. A little adversity, 
a little opposition, a little care, some trouble,—these are an advan¬ 
tage. Such cultivate and develop us. No year is made up of 
summer, and he is a fool who thinks it is. 

SOLUTIONS. 

We are too far in the nineteenth century to require to be told that 
the affections act and react with tremendous force upon our phys- 
* ical as well as mental and moral structures and constitutions ; nor 
that so-called w 7 ives and husbands frequently become absolutely and 
unequivocally poisoned by the repulsive spheres of their respective 
mates. In marriage land to-day non-assimilation of tempers, tem¬ 
peraments, spheres, joys, sorrows, pleasures, and pains, is the rule, 

•* 

while the converse is the exception. We are more highty and 
finely organized than were our ancestors, and far more susceptible to 
impressions of all kinds, and, like a good watch, are very easily 
thrown out of gear, become tired of our mates, restive under the ties 
which bind us, and long for what will fill the aching void, whose 
exact nature we do not precisely understand. An opinion largely 
prevails, emanating from wretched quacks, that the weak wife will 
extract the life from the strong husband, and vice versa, which, in 
some sense, is partly true. But magnetisms, like all other invisi¬ 
ble things, are graded, and the weak wife and refined woman finds 
no attraction in the coarse husband, and wholly fails to draw the 
slightest vitality from her strong and burly lord ; but that lord is 
certain to draw from her the finer magnetism of her body, and 
fattens on it, while she drops graveward day by day, because she 
cannot consume his coarse strength, but he delights in feeding 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


57 


upon her fine nerve aura; and many a suffering woman there is, who, 
feeling conscious that her life is being drained, and dreading the 
disgrace of a judicial or other separation, makes up her mind to 
bear it and die. Now this is not right or necessary, because her 
negative state alone is the cause of it, and to live, defy the raid 
upon her life and health, and become positive to the vampirous 
onslaught, is entirely within her power, because magnetic and 
electric positive states are as easily inductible in human bodies as 
in steel filings. She lacks oxygen, phosogen, — the proximate 
element of life, —phosphorus, iron ; and the chances are that her 
despair and disease — for such a woman is almost death-sure to 
have nervous complaints, obstructed or profuse menses, leucorrhea, 
prolapsus of the uterus, and a score of other vaginal, nervous, 
and uterine troubles beside, often attended with a strong desire to 

' 'ZD 

“get religion” — proceed, whatever may have been the original 
producing cause, — proceed, I repeat, from morbid chemical states 
of her body, frequently indicated by the excessive quantity of va¬ 
rious acids and salts therein ; which fact may easily be verified or 
gainsaid by chemical tests, very easily made, and which, when 
made, are perfectly decisive and conclusive on that point. I defy* 
any man or woman to be contented, loving, or happy, whose body 
is loaded down with slime, algoid vegetations along the various 
canals of the body; parasites in the intestines, liver, heart, brain 
or stomach (there are four and twenty species of entozoic parasites 
which find their natural habitat in the alimentary canal of man) ; 
ulcers in the veins, digestive organs, head, vagina, testes, womb, 
prostate gland or heart; or if the blood be loaded with spores, 
metallic atoms in excess, or wrong kinds, acids, alkalis, salts of 
various kinds, and earthy phosphates in excess, sugar, albumen, 
or vegetable fungi, — and I here repeat that hundreds of people 
live lives of wretchedness from such physical causes, who imagine 
them wholly mental. If such ones would but test the matter, 
destroy all morbid life within them by appropriate chemical and 
medicinal means, bring up the nervous tone and energy by means 
of the right kind of breathing, sunshine, fresh air, ablutions, mu¬ 
sic, exercise, and varied employment, the graveyards would be less 
thickly populated. I have known hundreds of such people effectu¬ 
ally restored to pristine vigor and magnetic power by such 


means. 


58 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


That spores, parasites, and animalculse are a frequent and often 
unsuspected cause of diseases of the body, and oftener the cayse 
of mental disturbance, may be judged of from the following taken 
from the u Boston Journal of Chemistry : ” — 

“Cystitis. — Dr. Bottini (of Navarre) has injected the bladder 
in cases of cystitis with a solution of carbolic acid, — one part to 
one hundred of water, — and has obtained most unhoped-for suc¬ 
cess. The putrefaction of the urine, due to its stagnation in the? 
bladder, is combated, stopped, or prevented ; and the myriads of 
zoophytes and of pencillium glaucum, very abundant before its 
use, are no longer to be found in the pus or urine.” — Giorn della 
Venetie. 

“ Parasites in Perspiration. — Dr. Lemaire, of Paris, has been 
examining the coating of perspiration and dust formed upon the 
bodies of people who have passed ten or fifteen days without a 
bath, and finds in it millions of living parasites.” 

“ The Chicago Microscopical Club examined specimens of 
trichinae from the biceps muscle of a young lady who recently 
died near that city. The specimens examined showed three liun- * 
dred thousand parasites to the cubic inch.” 

“Presence of Infusoria in the Expired Air in Whooping- 
Cough. — M. Poulet, in a note to the Academie des Sciences (Ga¬ 
zette Hebdomadaire), writes as follows: A small epidemic of 
whooping-cough having occurred in the locality where I live, I was 
induced to examine the vapor expired by several children affected 
with this malady, reputed contagious by the majority of observers. 
These vapors arising from the respiration of the little patients, 
presented a veritable world of infusoria, identical in all cases. 
The more numerous, which were also the most slender, may be 
classed with the species described by some under the name of 
Monas termo; by others, under that of Bacterium termo. Others 
in less number moved to and fro in the field of the instrument. 
They had a form resembling a bacillus , slightly spindle-shaped; 
their length was two to three hundreths of a millimetre; tlieir 
breadth, about a fifth as much. This is the species which Muller 
named Monas punctum ; Ehrenberg, Bodo punctum ; and which 
micrographers habitually class among the Bacteries— Bacterium 
bacillus. Thus, whooping-cough, because of these alterations in 
the expired air, belongs to the class of infectious maladies, of 



LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


59 


which I have already studied, from the same point of view, variola, 
scarlatina, and typhoid fever; and a truth, which the simple ob¬ 
servation of facts had already rendered evident, receives from 
microscopic study complete confirmation. 

“ The air we breathe, the water we drink, are full of spores and 
organic germs, all of which seem to have a purpose to serve in the 
economy of things. If any one doubts the statements of scientif¬ 
ic men regarding the presence of these germs, they have only to 
become acquainted with the use of the microscope to convince 
themselves of their entire truthfulness. Separate from the bark of 
the common maple-tree a bit of the adhering dry lichen, or moss, 
as it is called, moisten it with water, and place over it a glass 
slide. The spores or seeds which lie dormant, when the lichen is 
dry, immediately become vitalized, and rising into the air are 
caught upon the glass, and with a power of four hundred diameters 
can be seen and studied. This simple experiment will illustrate 
the origin and nature of what are called spores, and the air is filled 
with thousands of varieties, arising from as many sources. 

“ Dr. Smith and Mr. Dancer, of Manchester, England, have re- 
centl}’’ been examining the air of that city, and have found it 
loaded with them. The air was first washed by shaking it in a 
bottle with distilled water, and in a drop of the water it was 
reckoned that there were about two hundred and fifty thousand 
spores. In the quantity of air respired by a man in ten hours 
there would be more than thirty-seven and a half millions. All 
these germs, floating in the air, are ready to spring into activity, 
whenever the conditions of growth are favorable. The varieties 
and sources of fungoid growths from which the spores arise are 
wonderful. A fungus is known which develops only on the corpses 
of spiders ; another, which grows only on the hoofs of horses in a 
state of decomposition. The isaria has as yet been observed only 
on certain night butterflies ; there are other species which invade 
the larvae and chrysalides. Hooker has discovered a fungus which 
attains considerable dimensions (from ten to twelve centimeters), 
but which is found absolutely only on the neck of a certain cater¬ 
pillar in tropical countries. It vegetates on the animal, fructifies 
on it, and the caterpillar buries it with itself in the ground, whence 
it springs like a funeral plume. Still more, a singular vegetable 
is known, the racodium cellcire , which has never been found except 


GO LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 

on the casks in wine-cellars, and another which lives only on the 
drops of soot which the workmen let fall on the soil of mines. 
‘ Have the seeds of these vegetables remained without use from 
the origin of the world to the day that they found their proper 
soil?’” 

\ 

u Professor S-, of Cleveland, Ohio, has the very great repu¬ 

tation of having first discovered and demonstrated the cause of 
fever and ague to be an algoid vegetation which is found in the 
soils of malarial districts. This sends out its minute spores, 
which rise in the air, are inhaled into the lungs, and thus find their 
way into the system, where they grow till they are found in the 
blood, in all the secretions and excretions, and on the cutaneous 
surface. This discovery would seem to be enough for one man, as 
it has been sought after for ages. The doctor gives particular 
direction what to look for in a drop of blood, naming some sixty- 
seven different things to be noted, and even then f the catalogue is 
not complete. This is rather startling to ordinary observers, who 
have been accustomed to see only two items in a drop of blood, 
the red corpuscle and the white. Such are apt to speak of the 
doctor as a monomaniac. They do not receive the idea that rheu¬ 
matism is caused by oxalate of lime, cystine, phosphates, and 
emboli of fibrine in the blood; nor do they welcome the announce¬ 
ment that algoid and fungoid spores and filaments are found in 
certain pathological states of the blood as causes of disease. 
Ordinary microscopic observers are slow to believe in the state¬ 
ment that small-pox is caused by a vegetation which has an algoid 
and fungoid phase growing together, and that cow-pox is simply 
the algoid phase alone. It is also difficult for them to understand 
that typhoid fever is caused by a vegetation which grows on the 
skin, in the blood, and in the Peyer’s and Brunner’s glands of the 
small intestines ; all which views the doctor announces in the present 
work. It is easy to explain this distrust, on the ground that the 
views are novel, strange, and opposed to ordinary ideas. What is 
brought forward to sustain these extraordinary assertions ? The 
doctor simply states, that he has made over tliirty-Jive thousand 
examinations of blood, some of the examinations extending over 
half a day’s time. He has demonstrated to many physicians — 
among them is the writer — certain appearances in the blood 
which correspond to his descriptions, this blood being taken from 




LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


61 


'patients in the presence of the observers, and immediately ex¬ 
amined under the very best microscopes. The same appearances 
ha\e been found in the blood of patients by other observers after 
having been pointed out; so that there cannot be any doubt but 
that certain new pathological appearances have been discovered 
and brought into notice, only the question arises as to the inter¬ 
pretation to be placed upon them. If he is rightly understood, he 
does not ask for his statements to be received and swallowed down 
whole ; he wishes other observers to enter this new field, and, by 
a large number of careful studies, extended over a comparative!v 
long period of time, to establish the truth or falsity of his con¬ 
clusions. 

“ We have always heard a great deal about 4 bad blood.’ It is 
one of the most satisfactory diagnoses to the sick. They are 
willing to undergo a process of cleansing the blood by medicine, 
believing that they will not be cured until the detergent operation 
has been performed; but if you ask what is meant by 4 bad 
blood,’ you will find it difficult to receive an answer which is spe¬ 
cific. But the doctor comes forward and gives a clear response by 
saying, that in 4 bad blood’ are found certain definite, positive, 
specific, morphological characteristics and bodies, such as cystine, 
oxalate of lime, etc., which are foreign and pathological, and 
■which, by their presence and admixture, render the blood abnor¬ 
mal, that is, bad. 

44 It is easy to see, should these discoveries be confirmed re¬ 
ceived, and established, among the medical profession, how accu¬ 
rate and scientific the practice of medicine would become in certain 
complaints now considered self-limited, and subjected to expectant 
treatment. There would be a physical cause to remove; some¬ 
thing to take away and something to restore. For the sake, then, 
of suffering humanity, and of the medical profession, we hope that 
he may receive a candid, impartial, and exhaustive hearing and 
trial by those who arc the most competent to judge of such things ; 
and if our author comes out of the ordeal sustained, we shall be 
safe in saying of him that he will rank as one of the greatest 
medical discoverers and benefactors.” 

44 The other new and interesting metals which we find in our 
collection are lithium , thallium , and indium . The first of these is 
of a white color, and fuses at 180°. It is the lightest metal known, 


62 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


being almost as light as cork. Before spectrum analysis was dis-* 
covered, it was supposed the lithium salts were very rare ; but the 
wonderful spectroscope reveals their presence in almost all waters, 
in milk, tobacco, and even in human blood. A very strange plant 
is the tobacco plant. How singular, that atoms of the rarest and 
most remarkable of all the metals — csesium, rubidium, and lithi¬ 
um— should be found in this pungent weed! When volatile 
lithium compounds are heated in flame, the}' impart to it a most 
magnificent crimson tinge; nothing in ordinary pyrotechny can 
compare with it. If one six-thousandth part of a grain of lithium 
he present in a body , the spectroscope shows it when it is volatilized , 
or burned .” 

M. de la Rive makes an interesting communication to the 
Academy of Sciences, in Paris, upon the electrical state of the 
globe. We will give a summary of it after a few considerations. 

“Perfect instruments are of an extreme delicacy; the least 
thing deranges them and makes them valueless. It is the same 
with choice organizations. Persons whose moral and physical 
characters are uniform, moderate, always the same, who fall into 
no extremes, who are rarely subject to slight variations of health 
and strength, but who, whenever they are indisposed, are so in 
earnest, — these persons, whose thoughts and feelings move always 
upon the same diapason, possess a quantity and intensity of life 
nearly uniform, ever the same, which changes but slowly and with 
difficulty, but which, when once modified and enfeebled, is also 
with difficulty restored. These temperaments are bad conductors 
of life. They guard it well; but if circumstances unfortunately 
arise to enfeeble it, it can only be restored with much difficulty. 

u There are vulgar and common natures having no sentiment of 
poetry, made to live uniformly, without excesses of any kind. It 
is on this account they are commonly called good characters. But 
there is another category of individuals. See that man, full of 
force, of joy, of enthusiasm. Life animates all his fibres ; exist¬ 
ence is for him only happiness and success. But observe him 
to-morrow — even to-day, perhaps. Dejection contracts his feat¬ 
ures ; a profound melancholy shades his expression. How much 
sadness in his physiognomy ! Apprehension, indecision, the most 
complete vacuity, has seized hold of him. He sees only bitterness 
on the earth ; happiness has disappeared. And, what is strange, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


63 


his tv hole life passes in these alternations of strength and weak¬ 
ness, courage and fear, joys and sorrows indescribable. This is 
the type of those organizations which fill themselves with life in 
a moment, and may also lose it in a moment. They are to-day on 
the borders of the tomb, and to-morrow rejuvenated as though 
regenerated. 

‘'These natures, with characters so variable, which give the 
diapason in all degrees to human passion, —now full of strength 
and vigor, now cold and glacial,— are what the vulgar term melan¬ 
choly characters ; but the close observer will recognize in them 
the impress of choice natures, — those alone capable of great 
things. These especially need to study the hygiene suited to them, 
and the wisdom which will give them strength to restrain and sub¬ 
due their characters; then they may make the saints and heroes, 
the great men of every description. These natures alone are 
susceptible of sublime enjoyments and sublime sorrows, and of 
experiencing all that human life comprises. In their ranks are 
found the great martyrs of humanity; the geniuses and poets, 
who see the truth and feel its expression ; the beautiful in eve^ 
art, — music, design, literature, etc. 

“Nature entire is a language which these natures know by 
heart, and which reveals to them utterable secrets unknown to 
vulgar natures. The splendors of a beautiful night, the shades of 
the forest, the shuddering of the foliage in the breeze, the roaring 
waves of the sea, speak a language known to them. 

“ It is very unfortunate if these natures go astray and are care¬ 
less to curb their evil passions ; for it is these alone who are capa¬ 
ble of becoming the greatest and most corrupt profligates, or the 
most pure and noble philanthropists. If all the individuals be¬ 
longing to this category are not endowed with an intelligence 
sufficiently vast to be marked out in the multitude, they have, 
nevertheless, a certain stamp which enables them to be recognized 
as belonging, more or less, to this noble class. 

“ From the individual who is the most imperfect conductor of 
life, to him who is the best, there is an infinity of degrees, where 
each energy of character, with all its consequences, finds its place. 
It is not astonishing, then, that the atmospheric condition of the 
globe operates so much upon the persons of whom we are speak¬ 
ing, when Tve know the relations which exist between electricity 


64 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


and life, and the perturbations which atmospheric changes produce 
in the electrical state of the globe.” 

In order to protect my readers from the base impositions of 
empirics, I will teach them briefly how to detect certain phys¬ 
ical abnormal states by the analysis of urine. Of course, if the 
sickly state consequent upon either the reactions of the human 
loves upon the body, which frequently originate chemical condi¬ 
tions favorable to the development of minute organic life in the 
form of animalculse, parasites, living atoms, infusoria, abnormal 
vegetations, ete., or which spring from the absorption of poison, 
either ethereal, electric, magnetic, or from contact, the examina¬ 
tions must proceed by means of the microscope, the blood being 
the substance of analysis instead of the urine, as hereinafter directed 
how to be done. 

When a person is mortally bitten by the co&ra, molecules 
of living germinal matter are thrown into the blood, and so 
rapidly multiply that in a few hours millions upon millions are 
produced. Chemical action is interfered with, combustion is ex¬ 
tinguished ; coldness, sleepiness, insensibility, slow breathing, and 
death follow. How mysterious is the influence of poison! 

Much of our conduct depends, no doubt, upon the character 
of the food we eat. Perhaps, indeed, the nature of our meals 
governs the nature of our impulses more than we are inclined to 
admit, because none of us relish well the abandonment of our idea 
of free agency. Bonaparte used to attribute the loss of one of his 
battles to a poor dinner, which, at the time, disturbed his diges¬ 
tion : how many of our misjudgments, how many of our deliber¬ 
ate errors, how many of our unkindnesses, our cruelties, our acts 
of thoughtlessness and recklessness, ma} r be actually owing to a 
cause of the same character? We eat something that deranges 
the condition of the system. Through the stomachic nerve that 
derangement immediately affects the brain. Moroseness succeeds 
amiability ; and under its influence we do that which would shock 
our sensibility at any other moment. Or, perhaps, a gastric irregu¬ 
larity is the common result of an over-indulgence in wholesome 
food, or a moderate indulgence in unsuitable food. The liver is 
afflicted. In this affliction the brain profoundly sympathizes. 
The temper is soured ; the understanding is narrowed ; prejudices 
are strengthened; generous impulses are subdued ; selfishness, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


65 


originated by physical disturbances which perpetually distract the 
mind s attention, become a chronic mental disorder ; the feeling of 
charity dies out; we live for ourselves alone ; we have no care for 
others. And all this change of nature is the consequence of an 
injudicious diet. 

I have already called attention to the statements of Professor 
Huxley concerning Protoplasm, or the physical basis of life. I 
now propose to recur to it again. It is incontestably proved that 
all life originates in a gelatinous substance,— animal and vegetable 
life alike. It is also generally believed that “a man without love 
is no man at all; ” and the same holds true of woman. There never 
yet ’was a really great man or woman who was not open-hearted, 
generous, oftentimes faulty, and in all cases weak in the amorous 
departments of common human nature. There is no class of dis¬ 
eases so prevalent in the world as those which affect the brain, the 
nerves, and the sexual organizations of both sexes alike; none are 
so hard to cure, none so terrible in their results, — for insanity in 
a hundred forms attests this truth. Exhaustion is said to be the 
cause. But exhaustion of what? Of blood? No; for you may 
bleed a man to the verge of death, yet leave him sane, healthy but 
weak. Of semen, in the case of man, or lochia in that of woman ? 
No ; either of these are inadequate to the results we see. Of what, 
then, are such people exhausted,— those females, for instance, who 
by love disappointments are blighted in a month ; or those men who 
by continued libertinism or solitary habits have reached life’s 
strand ? I answer they have lost the power to chemically generate 
the physical under-layer of life, that element known to modern 
science as Protoplasm, not the mere nitrogenous lining of cells, 
but the vivificatory unctious First-Matter that constitutes the 
primal nucleoli of the billion-fold forms of organic life, and 
without which no life at all could be. Good food is consigned 
to the stomach, by it is changed into chyme and chyle ; is then 
passed into the blood, is exposed to the action of ether, oxygen, 
and electricity through the instrumentality of the lungs, and under¬ 
goes a change into phosogen, and as such makes its round through 
the body r generally, until a certain portion of it is lodged by the 
way, forming nails, hair, and bone. Still rushing on its course, it 
is acted on by light, ether, and magnetism through the instrumen¬ 
tality of the skin, and undergoes a further transmutation into 
5 


66 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


human protoplasm in the womb, ovaries, vagina, brain, testicles, 
prostate, and duvernayan glands respectively, whence it takes a 
higher ethereal form and becomes nerve-aura, — the energizing in¬ 
fluence of the entire human being. But when, by sudden over¬ 
whelming, affectional, or nervous shocks, by self-abuse or liber¬ 
tinism, the nervous energy of the organs named becomes impaired, 
the chemical changes cannot occur, waste ensues, sickness results, 
and death speedily follows. Here, then, is a new discovery of 
priceless value, and deduced from thousands of patient observa¬ 
tions, and the truth has been proved in hundreds of instances in a 
medico-chemical practice of over five and twenty years. And I 
will go into any insane asylum or hospital in the world and under¬ 
take the entire restoration of any hundred cases of disease caused 
by nervous drain, dyspepsia, libertinism, or insanity in any form, 
originating in over use, abuse, or electrical insulation of any of 
the nervous apparatus. Of course, I will decline to attempt it 
when the cause has been a blow or a fall; but in any case resulting 
from nervous shock, vital expenditure, and sedentary habit, I will 
undertake all cases, and guarantee success merely by the use of 
protoplasmal agents in ninety-eight out of each hundred ; and I 
will teach any and all applicants the entire art, power, and nature 
of the theory and practice, now enunciated to the world for the 
first time in its history. Like all other discoverers, I have been 
compelled to row my barque against wind and tide, amidst the 
jeers and sneers, and, what is worse still, the faint praise of fair- 
weather friends ; never had a party, never worked for one, and 
up to this hour have encountered vindictive hostility from the 
party of reformers in whose cause I have labored for many long 
years, — people who in the dark hour predicted my failure, and in 
the light days said, “We always knew you would succeed.” I 
have succeeded, and am proud this blessed day when I can write 
that sentence, and happy in God’s truth, and that I am able and 
willing to share it with mankind. This I shall do, no matter who 
frowns, so long as my home is on earth and my residence 
is, at present, Boston, Mass., where all who value the truths I 
have delved for can write me and receive it at my hands. 

What an enormous host there is who can, truthfully, mournfully, 
broken-heartedly, sing this mournful song of “ dead love ” ! I 
have sung it, with pallid lips and tortured soul, when the great 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


67 


world about me knew nothing of the pangs of my soul, but ex¬ 
pected me to smile and be gay, and pour forth eloquent speech 
into the ears of the throng, when all the while my heart was 
aching and salt tears were rushing, unbidden, to my eyes : — 


“Wo are face to face, and between us here 
Is the love we thought could never die; 
Why has it only lived a year ? 

Who has murdered it, — you or I ? 


“No matter who — the deed was done 
By one or both, and there it lies; 

The smile from the lip is forever gone, 
And darkness over the beautiful eyes. 


“ Our love is dead, and our hope is wrecked; 

So what does it profit to talk and rave, 

Whether it perished by my neglect, 

Or whether your cruelty dug its grave ? 

“ Why should you say that I am to blame; 

Or why should I charge the sin on you ? 

Our work is beside us all the same. 

And the guilt of it lies between us two. 

“We have praised our love for its beauty and grace; 
Now we stand here, and hardly dare 
To turn the face-cloth back from the face, 

And see the thing that is hidden there. 


“ Yet look! ah, that heart has beat its last, 

And the beautiful life of our life is o’er, 

And when we have buried and left the past, 

We two together can walk no more. 

“ You might stretch yourself on the dead and weep 
And pray as the prophet prayed —in pain; 

And not like him could you break the sleep, 

And bring the soul to the clay again. 

“ Its head on my bosom I can lay, 

And shower my woe there, kiss on kiss; 

But there never was resurrection day 
In tho world for a love so dead as this. 

“ And since we cannot lessen the sin 
By mourning over the deed we did, 

Let us draw the winding-sheet up to tho chin, 
Ay, up till the death-blind eyes are hid.” 


68 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


This story is as common in society as are sunrises on the world. 
It is safe to say that just such a skeleton, blighted hopes and 
wrecked affection, can be found in seven households in every ten; 
and still the grim tragedy goes on, and its elements are wayward¬ 
ness, thoughtlessness, lack of bearance and forbearance, selfish¬ 
ness or lust, resulting in coolness, coldness, estrangement, disgust, 
and hatred. Love is a tender flower, and must be carefully nursed, 
or it will wither and decay, after which, one of two roads lie before 
the victims,— sickness, wasting, and death, or desperation, and —a 
liaison; for it is human nature to yearn for affection, and if it 
cannot be had at home it will be sought for elsewhere, and ac¬ 
cepted wherever and whenever found. How many of you who 
read this book, and “ After Death,” know the force of God’s truth, 
now falling from my pen, and how many of you daily behold the 
skeleton in your own closets ! To render the sum-total less, and 
because I have suffered just there , is why I have written on Love 
and its Hidden Histor}^. 

Somebody thinks the marriage service should read thus: — 

“Clergyman : Will you take this stone mansion, this carriage and 
pair, and these diamonds for thy wedded husband? Yes. Will 
you take this unpaid milliner’s bill, this high chignon of foreign 
hair, these affected accomplishments and feeble constitution for 
thy wedded wife ? Yes. Then what man has joined together let 
the next best man run away with, so that the first divorce court 
may tear them asunder; ” and not be far wrong either as times 
go. 

It often happens that an unexpressed thought of one person is 
felt by the other without a word being spoken or an overt act done. 
Married people to each other can be, and often are, the veriest 
hypocrites; and many a man and wife have lain down at night 
with murder and suicide for bedfellows, requiring but one more 
feather’s weight to crush a soul and send another victim of mis¬ 
placed confidence home to God. 

Many of our sufferings on account of love come vicariously. 
Away back in the foretime some of our progenitors have trans¬ 
gressed its mysterious laws, mental, moral, or physical, and we are 
called upon to pay the cost; for “ I, the Lord thy God, am a 
jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the chil¬ 
dren.” No truer line was ever written, and it will stand so while 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


69 


4 


the mathematical laws of physiology remain a part of God’s 
economy. 

In my book, “The Rosicrucian’s Story,” I have, in the 
form of a novel, treated this entire subject at length, and I refer 
my readers to that work for farther light upon this part of the 
general subject. The cure of the bad state of affairs between 
Tom Clark and Betsey his wife, in that volume, as in the greater 
one of human life, hinges upon the practical application of a magic 
power resident in the little word “ TRY ; ” for it is a great word, 
though it musters only three letters. It is the story of every 
achievement, from great to small, that the world has ever seen. 
The presence or absence of its spirit is the mark which dis¬ 
tinguishes the difference in men. The lad or young man who says 
he will try, and means it, is the one who, by and by, will succeed. 
The head on his shoulders is the go-ahead, the kind which all good 
folks admire, and which is a credit and profit to itself; and in love 
affairs, the disagremens of affectional life, no talisman is so 
potent as that one word. 

[Note. — At this point there arises a thought which, while of ines¬ 
timable value to all who are subjects of affection, cannot well be printed 
in this book, not because of immodesty, but because the masses yet labor 
under many false impressions. I sacredly believe that the thought here 
alluded to, and the information it conveys, is the most transcendently 
valuable ever given on the esoteric love-life of the race; and as all 
truth is common property, I hold this one at the service of all who are 
married and disappointed , and all who seek to wed and escape the univer¬ 
sal horror. Such may write me for it at Boston.] 

It is sheer folly to expect or attempt to make people love each 
other by statute law. God makes marriages if any are made, and 
all others are sheer frauds, counterfeits, and not worth the paper 
upon which the certificates are written. Just think of A and B 
certifying that C and D are married ! Bah ! Marriage is of the 
heart, and head, and soul, and when not so, it is not wedlock, — it 
is a patent compound torture to both, and its fitting name is — 
Hell, and many of us there be, of both genders, who serve ap¬ 
prenticeships therein ! We are all sensible of our power of enjoying 
life in all its phases, love in all its moods. And then to be 
balked of its attainment! Well might Victor Hugo say as he 
does : “ With such longings, how grievous a thing it is to be im- 


70 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


potent! ” And } r et after all we need not be ; and will not be when 
we all learn that God means sex to the spirit and not alone to the 
senses, as it is, alas, too often solely regarded by us poor, half¬ 
blind children of his mercy ! 

Husbands are not alone in making mistakes. Their hearts are 
human as well as their wives’, and they, equally value patience, 
kindliness, sympathy, forbearance, and fondness. A wifely caress 
wonderfully rests a wearied man, and a timely kiss and sweet 
word will ever pay an exorbitant interest. 

When a couple disagree, gossips and “ the public ” usually take 
sides and blame one or the other, and say, ‘ 4 he is in fault,” or “ she 
is.” Now, how do they know? How is it possible for outsiders, 
even in the family, to know about the causes of trouble which 
often lie too deep for probing? What do they, what can they, 
know about the private and strictly secret causes at the base of 
the domestic rupture ? What can other people know of the private 
skeleton in the closet of each, both, or either ? Evidently nothing at 
all; and many a man and woman has been condemned by the speech 
of just such meddling fools as are to be found in every neighbor¬ 
hood. A woman or a man are altogether different beings to the 
“ people,” and even to their own parents, to what they are to each 
other ; and it is time the “ people ” found this out! 

The rabidities of mankind, the coarseness he evinces, the lurid 
lusts that beset him, and the fearful perversions of the amative 
passion witnessed in his career, are not the legitimate properties 
of the species, and will not be seen when the race remembers its 
descent, realizes its inherent royalty. ♦ 

In the heart of man there lurks, like a lion in a jungle, the 
principle of royalty! We are all of us born kings. We have 
royal marks about us. We are owners of escutcheons that blaze 
not with the reminiscences of a past glory, but with the splendid 
promises of a life in the future. These signs of the royalty in 
our nature are too plain to be mistaken. The multitudes have al¬ 
ways set up kings above them, that they might thus do homage to 
those regal qualities of which they felt themselves to be possessed. 
We testify, in a great degree, our claim to a quality the instant we 
begin to betray our appreciation. “ Man is a noble animal; 
splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave,” said Sir Thomas 
Browne. Yes, man is royal, whether in life or death. With ele- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


71 


ments in his nature that are godlike ; with capacities whose final 
reach no intellect has yet limited ; with hopes that burn like ever¬ 
lasting stars in the sky; and aspirations that mount up on 
stronger than eagle’s wings, and seek to lay hold of the very 
battlements of heaven; with a reason forever restless and un¬ 
satisfied ; a widening career that continually puts the worthiness 
of his past actions to open shame ; with longings after the vague 
and ideal, and a soul forever haunted with images and dreams, 
that would seem almost to hint at a previous existence, — well 
might Hamlet sa}" as he did : — 

“ What is man, 

If his chief good, and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast no more. 

Sure, He that made us with such large discourse , * 

Looking before and after gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason, 

To fast in us unused.” 

“ She said, You offer me love — but what hind — ah, what kind? And he answered, 
love all truly human.” — Listen! — 


I will love thee as the flowers love, 

That in the summer weather, 

Each standing in its own place, 

Lean rosy lips together, 

And pour their sweet confession 
Through a petal’s folded palm, 

With a breath that only deepens 
The azure-lidded calm 
Of the heavens bending o’er them, 

And the blue-bells hung before them, 
All whose odor in the silence is a psalm. 

I will love thee as the dews love, 

In chambers of a lily; 

Hung orb-like and unmeeting, 

With their flashes blending stilly; 

By the white shield of the petals 
Held a little way apart, 

While all the air is sweeter 

For the yearning of each heart, 

That yet keep cool and crystal 
Their globed spheres celestial, 

While to and fro their glimmers ever dart. 


72 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


I will love thee as the stars love, 

In sanctity enfolden; 

That tune in constellations 

Their harps divine and golden; 

Across the heavens greeting 
Their sisters from afar; 

The Pleiades to Mazzaroth, — 

Star answering to star 
With a love as high and holy, 

And apart from all that’s lowly, 

Swaying to thee like the planets without jar. 

I will love thee as the spirits love, 

Who, free of earth and heaven, 

Wreathe white and pale blue flowers 
For the brows of the forgiven; 

And are dear to one another 
For the blessings they bestow 
On the weary and the wasted, 

In our wilderness of woe; 

By thy good name with the angels, 

And thy human heart’s evangels, 

Shall my love from holy silence to thee go. 


Kind words always pay; they never blister on the tongue or lips ; 
and we never heard of any mental trouble arising from this 
quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish 
much. They help one’s own good nature and good will. Soft 
words soften our own soul. Angry words are fuel to the flame of 
wrath, and make it burn more fiercety. Kind words make other 
people good-natured. Cold words freeze people, and hot words 
scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful 
words make them wrathful. There is such a rush of all other 
kind of words in our day, that it seems desirable to give kind 
words a chance among them. -There are vain words, and idle 
words, and silly words, and hasty words, and spiteful words, and 
empty words, and profane words, and boisterous words, and war¬ 
like "words. Kind words also produce their own image on men’s 
souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe, and quiet, and 
comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, 
unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in 
such abundance as they ought to be used. — Pascal. 

********** 

Let us now proceed to the recital of methods whereby to ascer- 










LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


73 


tain, by legitimate scientific tests, the presence of morbid matters 
in the system, and as the processes are simple and eas}^ besides 
being quite inexpensive, seeing that for the sum of ten dollars 
every family may provide itself with the entire chemical apparatus, 
agents, reagents, and even a microscope of forty diameter power, 
and by following the rules here laid down, be able to demonstrate 
the character of any malady of the nature of those we have been 
mainly considering, namely, those of the nervous, sexual, and 
urinary systems, — the very ones that are sure to be more or less 
deranged under abnormal states of the love-nature of both sexes ; 
and when these organs and functions are restored to normal health, 
normal power is the direct result; for With that restoration come 
the elements of will, courage, resolution, and force of character; 
for when all is right in that department the resisting power, both 
mental, moral, and physical, is right also; if these sections of 
human nature are wrong, then the whole immortal being is un¬ 
hinged ; by the presence of a grain of poison in the blood, or mor¬ 
bid life (parasites, etc.), all of which sustain themselves by con¬ 
suming and appropriating the magnetism and electricity of the 
body, and therefore rob the mind of its pabulum, the victim is not 
him or herself in any sense of the word. 

Now, a very summary method of finding out some of the causes 
of physical prostration and morbidity is to take a portion of the 
urine first discharged after a night of sleep or rest, having pre¬ 
viously provided the apparatus above mentioned, which is com¬ 
prised in a half-dozen watch crystals, test-tubes, spirit lamp, 
gravity vial or urinometer, and a few chemicals and testing-paper. 
After standing a few hours the urine may present any one of a 
dozen suspicious appearances ; it may be colorless, or too highly 
colored. The specific gravity, which in a healthful state seldom 
falls below 1003/ or above 1030'. If it prove to be between 
1015'and 1025/no particularly diseased state is indicated; but 
if it ranges from 1025/ to 1045', — on the authority of the 
best living chemist, the result of whose experiments I am here 
giving, — you may regard the patient as laboring under a more or 
less positive diabetic condition, for a high specific gravity is ab¬ 
solute proof of the presence of sugar; but to remove all doubt 
let the urine stand awhile, and if diabetic a whitish scum will rise 
upon its surface. Now take a spoonful of the urine and mix with 


74 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


it half as much liquor potassa, put it into a test-tube and boil it 
over the spirit-lamp, and if sugar (diabetes) is in it, the resultant 
tint will be brownish. But to make assurance doubly sure, half¬ 
fill another test-tube with the urine, and add two drops of a solu¬ 
tion of sulphate of copper, blue vitriol; this will just shade the 
liquid ; then add one-third as much liquor of potassa as there is of 
the urine, and boil it as in the previous experiment. If sugar be 
present a yellow or reddish-brown precipitate will be found settling 
at the bottom; but if there be a black precipitate there is no 
diabetes. 

Now, there is among Americans a great deal too much nervous 
action and emotional excitement, from which very frequently re¬ 
sults a terrible malady known as “ Bright’s disease of the kid¬ 
neys,” and pitiable indeed are the victims of it. To determine 
the presence of that complaint you must test for albumen in the 
urine, which is simply done by merely boiling it in the test-tube, 
and if albumenuria exists it will assume either a delicate opales¬ 
cent hue, caused by the minute flocculi of boiled-egg-like sub¬ 
stance, or it will appear in larger curdy flakes, and sometimes will 
even almost solidifj^ into compact gelatine. But it often happens 
that an excess of earthy phosphates will produce a white precipi¬ 
tate, even when there is not the slightest trace of albumen. To 
test the matter keep on boiling; if the white precipitate still 
abounds, albumen is present; or take another test-tube of the 
urine and add five drops of dilute nitric acid, and if the patient 
has Bright’s disease the urine will assume a permanent milky hue. 

We are all chemical laboratories, of a very high and fine order, 
and a great many things, elements, and combinations come out of 
us that never went in, but are the results of chemical action within 
the body. Among others thus produced is a very important ele¬ 
ment known to chemists as urea, the same that gives to urine its 
very peculiar and pungent odor, especially when thrown upon a 
hot iron surface. Now, if this element be in excess within the 
body, it is productive of very bad consequences, for it is certain 
to produce morbid states of mind, unusual drowsiness, inability to 
control one’s self, and a long and distressing catalogue of ills be¬ 
sides. The element is essential to health when normal in quantity. 
To detect its excess, place a few drops of urine on a tumbler bot¬ 
tom, and add an equal number of drops of pure nitric acid, and if 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


75 


urea be in excess, there will form a number of rhomboidal, six- 
sided crystals, clearly discernible by the unassisted eye ; but if 
they require magnifying, in order to be clearly seen, then give 
yourself no trouble on the score of urea. The remedy for its ex¬ 
cess is avoidance of all stimulants, and the due administration of 
Phosodyn and Bromide of Ammonia. 

There is a peculiar element in the urine called uric acid. When 
present in excess it has a very high color, either a heavy amber or 
reddish-brown, and a bit of litmus paper wet with it instantly turns 
red. After being boiled, and suffered to cool, a crystalline sediment 
of a red color will be deposited, a little of which must be taken, 
placed on a slip of glass, and examined under the microscope, one 
of which, showing forty diameters, can be bought for a trifle. If 
groups of clearly defined crystals are seen, they are uric acid. 
Now heat the urine that has the sediment in it, and the uric acid 
will not dissolve until you add a few drops of liquor-potassa to 
the sediment. It is always present in moderate quantity in healthy 
urine, but when excessive is the cause of an immense deal of 
nervous, mental, and urinal trouble, because it is productive of 
millions of fine, sharp crystals, which, being taken up by the 
blood, are deposited all over the system, and when this is the 
case health, either of mind, morals, or body, is wholly impossible. 

Ammonia, or salts containing it, is not often found in fresh 
urine, but by standing awhile it will decompose, and its nitroge- 
neous constituents will assume the form of ammoniacal compounds ; 
hence it is frequently found to contain an excess of urate of am¬ 
monia, and in that case is high-colored, cloudy, turbid, dense, and 
heavy; and thousands there are who, because of that sediment 
appearing in their urine, have been frightened half out of their 
senses, and swindled of their dollars, by hundreds of conscience¬ 
less quacks who make a great parade over what they are pleased 
to term the “ brick-dust” deposit, and sell any amount of “ patent 
remedies ” to cure it. Where it exists it can be easily tested, and 
quite as easily cured; for the same agents named above are 
especially effective in these cases also, for reasons hereinafter set 
forth. -But it will be well to thoroughly test whether urate of 
ammonia be present or not, for the mere color of the sediment, 
pale fawn, reddish purple, or pink, is not always decisive, for sev¬ 
eral other alkaline bases, as soda and potash, may be combined 


76 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


with uric acid therein, and of course the color will be more or less 
varied by them. Fill a test-tube and slowly warm it, and if the 
sediment, the “ brick-dust ” of the quacks, be urate of ammonia, it 
will dissolve at once, but will again precipitate when allowed to 
cool. Place a portion of the deposit under the microscope, and 
you will find many large, round particles among countless smaller 
ones in this amorphous powder. But do not mistake the phos¬ 
phate of lime for urate of ammonia. To test it, place a few drops 
on a bit of glass, and add one drop of hydrochloric acid thereto. 
If it is the above phosphate it will at once dissolve; but if it be 
the urate it will decompose slowly, and very small crystals of uric 
acid be developed. Great care must also be taken not to confound 
urate of ammonia with the earthy phosphates. Remember that 
these latter very soon settle at the bottom of the urinal vessel, but 
the former cannot do so until time has effected certain chemical 
changes. It is only the excess of the phosphates that marks dis¬ 
ease, for they, especially phosphate of lime, are held in solution 
in all healthy urine, and only when in excess do they cause trouble 
and consolidate into gravel or stone, and these calculi are often the 
cause of death, or, which is worse, protracted misery. Warm a 
little of the urine, and add a few drops of ammonia, which will at 
once cause the phosphates to fall down, and so you can judge if 
they are in excess or not. Frequently the urine contains mucus , 
— a bad sign. It will settle in two viscid, dirty yellow, tenacious 
layers, the limpid fluid at the top, the sticky, ropy mass at the 
bottom, nor do they easily mix together when stirred or shaken. 
The urine often contains pus , indicating albumen also when tested 
in a tube with a drop or so of nitric acid, for it will coagulate and 
float about in flocculi. If albumen is absent, so is pus. But when 
this latter is present there is serious trouble in kidneys, bladder, 
urethra, and the whole pelvic viscera, and recourse must be had to 
entire change of locality, climate, food, etc., or else to a full 
course of phosogenic treatment, the use of fruits, cereals, and, 
above all, good beef underdone, without condiments other than 
salt, cayenne, and mushroom sauces. 

It is estimated that the direct income of quackery and child- 
murder in this country exceeds fourteen millions of dollars annu¬ 
ally, and at least one-third of this is derived from the real or 
imaginary victims of spermatorrhea in men and of fluor albus in 



LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


77 


women. As to the former, there is not over three eases in evp.ry 
ten claimed to be, that are in reality so, for in the microscope we 
have the means of demonstrating the facts, and exposing fraud at 
the same time; for if semen be passed spasmodically in sleep, or 
under venereal excitation, we have the means at hand everywhere 
that cold water or chloroform can be found to put a stop to it right 
off: and when passed in the urine we can detect it, but require a 
glass of high power to do it with, because the human germs, zoas, 
or tadpole-like animalculae, are exceedingly minute, and ought to 
be magnified at least three hundred diameters to enable us to form 
a correct judgment, for it may happen that the semen is voided by 
mere stress of physical virility and long abstinence, from sudden 
venereal excitement, or from chemical or magnetic causes, in neith¬ 
er of which cases is it true spermatorrhea, which is a total inability 
to retain it within the body, — a circumstance of very rare occur¬ 
rence ! When semen in the urine, or voided other ways abnormally, 
is properly referable to spermatorrhea, most of the zoas will be 
thin, laggard, slow, or dead; but if other causes have induced 
their discharge, they will exhibit phenomena the exact opposite of 
these. And although in any case they will be dead when found in 
the urine, — for the salt kills them, —yet the difference between those 
voided from disease of the parts involved, and those accidentally 
discharged, is the difference between a fat dead sheep and one 
dead from long neglect and final starvation. The proper cure in 
either case is to be found in phosodynic treatment, persistently 
followed. 

Qualitative, not quantitative, analysis, is what is mainly required 
in trying to learn the actual state of the body, especially in the 
morbid states that result from atony, perversion or inversion of 
the love nature and viscera. 

Sometimes the system is too filled with acid, and to determine 
that point, dip a bit of blue litmus paper in the urine. If acid 
abounds the paper will redden. If alkalies prevail, test the point 
with turmeric paper, and it will become brown, if your surmise is 
right; in which case the urea has changed into the carbonate of 
ammonia, and must be corrected by the use of the barosmynic 
remedials; and the same must be exhibited if the urine gives 
evidence of a preponderance of uric acid, oxalate of lime, urate of 
ammonia, or of soda. Warm a little of the deposit in a test-tube. 



78 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


If it dissolves it is either urate of soda or ammonia. If it does 
not dissolve, try another portion, and add five drops of acetic acid, 
and if it dissolves, rest assured that the sediment consists of 
earthy phosphates. But if it proves refractory, try another por¬ 
tion in the same wa}", with pure hydrochloric acid; if it dissolves 
you have oxalate of lime before you. But it may not dissolve jmt, 
in which case a portion must be dried on a slip of glass, and then 
treated with a drop or two of nitric acid, and if it now dissolves, 
it must again be dried to a powder, and allowed to stand till cold; 
then apply two drops of ammonia, which, if the deposit be uric 
acid, will change its color to a fine purple-red. 

Thus is clearly seen the chemical tests for uric acid, the earthy 
phosphates, oxalate of lime and soda, and the urate of ammonia,— 
all of which are prolific sources of trouble, and affect both mind, 
body, and disposition to a very abnormal degree. 

But, in addition to the above four or five, and semen , blood , pus , 
and mucus in the urine, it may be heavily charged with fatty mat¬ 
ter , indicating a very dangerous condition, — fatty degeneration 
of the kidneys ; or chylous matter, — the presence of actual chyle 
in the urine, showing a fearful condition of the entire alimentary 
and absorbent systems ; or it may contain cystine , cystic oxide , 
one of the principal elements of urinary calculi, gravel or stone, 
which may occasion uncounted trouble, and inexpressible agony. 
When blood is in the urine i^s color will detect it. It is insoluble 
when heated, and if warmed in a test-tube will coagulate upon the 
addition of two drops of nitric acid. Test for chyle and fat: 
Put equal bulks of urine and ether in a test-tube, and shake it 
well, then let the ether evaporate ; after which put clear water in 
the tube, and the fat will float upon the surface. If, when shaken 
up with ether, the contents of the tube become milky and opaque, 
it demonstrates the presence of chyle. The test for cystine is to 
add a little ammonia to the deposit, and if it is cystine it will 
dissolve. Then dry the solution over a flame and magnify the 
crystals. If they are clearly hexagonal — six-sided — the cystine 
hypothesis is demonstrated to be true. These chemical tests are 
here given, because it not seldom happens that a deal of trouble in 
this life, especialty in the love relations and organs, have no deep¬ 
er seat than magnetic, chemical, and electric aberrations; and 
these self-same disturbances are often also directly caused by men- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 79 

w • * 

tal and emotional disturbances in the same departments of being, 
and in either case the sufferer should at once hasten to change the 
abnormal action, by methods already indicated in these pages. 
Any one can carry on these testings, or take a four-ounce vial of 
the urine and send it to almost any chemist, and thus ascertain 
the real state of affairs underlying external symptoms or internal 
trouble. Since I began to make analyses I have but little cessa¬ 
tion of labor. 

But there is another phase of this grand subject, and different 
points of view, to some of which we will now briefly call atten¬ 
tion : — 

That soul, spirit, and body are, in this life, closely related and 
interdependent, is a truth which, although denied by unreasoning 
zealots, is so plain and clear, under the strong light that starry 
science has thrown upon the subject, that none but serni-idiots can 
possibly disaffirm. 

I now announce another startling truth, believing, most solemnly 
believing, as I do, that moral, social, domestic, and intellectual 
health cannot possibly exist unless the human body is also in a 
free, full, pure state of normal health likewise. I have not the 
slightest doubt but that the bodily states here affect the immortal 
soul hereafter, and that the sin against one’s self is, in its ulterior 
effects, the most terrible that man can imagine. Elsewhere I have 
defined it, and also announced the discovery of two other very 
important truths, namely, that nine-tenths of all the “ crime,” 
“sin,” and “iniquity” committed on the globe, and especially 
within the pale of so-called “civilization” is wholly, solely, and 
entirely the result or effect of chemical, electrical, and magnetic 
conditions; and that if those who commit them were under the 
influence of an opposite state of things, quite opposite results and 
conduct would be the rule, and not the exception ! However this 
theory may be misapprehended now, the day is not far off when its 
golden truth will be gratefully acknowledged on all sides; for it 
will be clearly seen that the same laws govern the mind as rule 
the bod}’. Who is there that does not know that drunkenness is 
a mere chemical condition ; that the effect of sudden ill-news 
turns one sick at the stomach; that disappointment hardens the 
liver ; that fear relaxes the bowels ; that grief unstrings the mus- 


80 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


cles ; and that, in fact, a hundred other purely chemical effects 
demonstrate the truth of this my new theory? 

My researches into the arcana of mental and physical disease 

have fullv satisfied me that this world of ours will never be the 
«/ 

delightful place it is capable of becoming, till the great chemico- 
dynamic laws are clearly understood and -obeyed. At intervals 
during twenty-five years I have practised medicine, have made 
nervous diseases, including insanity, a speciality ; and I now make 
public the secret of my success in the treatment of such, and 
correlated diseases, trusting that the disclosures may fall into the 
hands of those who are not so strongly bound to the old as to 
reject a better theory and system, and one, too, that has never yet 
failed where fairly tried. 

Should my readers, and the vast public that I now address, be 
asked to state what they considered the most supreme bliss of 
physical life, no two answers would probably be the same ; for one 
would name this, another that, and so on through them all; and 
the chances are that not one of them would correctly name it. 
Beyond all question the most rapturous sensation the human body 
can experience is sudden relief from pain, — an assertion amply 
confirmed by every one’s experience. Freedom from pain is a 

supreme jo} r , perfect health the chief good, — facts not realized 

» 

till both are gone. 

The surgeon at his dissecting table is struck with awe as he 
beholds the marvels of the human body, even when still and cold 
in the icy folds of Death; but what would be his astonishment 
and awe, could he with true clairvoyant eye behold the mighty 
machine’in full and active motion, — as I and many others have 
through that marvellous magnetic sight? Not for an emperor’s 
diadem would I exchange the blessed knowledge thus acquired, for 
it has saved many a valuable life, and the glory is greater, and 
hereafter will be more highly prized, than that of any imperial 
butcher whose fame is builded upon rape, carnage, and fields red- 
wet with human slaughter. 

“It is all guesswork ! ” said one of earth’s greatest physicians, 
when speaking of his own art; and it is certain that nearly all the 
old theories of diseases and their remedies are fast dying out, and 
that the era of Positive Science is already dawning on the world. 
People now begin to understand of what their bodies are com- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


81 


posed and to realize that the best remedies are those already 
manufactured and compounded by Nature herself; or, in other 
words, they begin to know that any given form of disease indicates 
either the excess or absence of one or more of the elements that go 
to make up the body, and that means must be used to vacate the 
excess, or to supply the deficiency, which being done, and chemi¬ 
cal harmony and electric and magnetic equilibrium being restored, 
physical, mental, and moral health follow, must follow, with math¬ 
ematical certainty and precision. These physical remedies of Na¬ 
ture are heat, water, light, exercise, sleep, food, and fresh air,— 
the last being greatest, seeing that it is the most direct vehicle of 
life itself. 

Men, and women too, have existed for long years immured in vile 
dungeons, deprived of all light; for no blessed sun-ray ever reached 
their blank abodes. These same victims, and millions more, existed 
and exist, without exercise, and with but poor food, and a worse 
supply of water. Caravans on the desert, and sailors becalmed 
or wrecked, have gone even twent}' - days without water, and yet 
survived to tell the dreadful tale of their fearful agonies when thus 
deprived. We are all familiar with the records of the long periods of 
forced abstinence from food, not a few instances having reached the 
enormous period of thirty consecutive days ; nor need I scarce men¬ 
tion the wonderful resisting power of the human body against the 
extremes of both heat and cold, but especially the former. In some 
parts of India, Australia, and Africa, men thrive under a temper¬ 
ature within twenty-five degrees of that of boiling water ; while here, 
right in our midst, thousands of fools flock to see others of the same 
species handle bars of hot iron, wash their hands in molten lead, 
walk barefoot on red-hot plates, and enter ovens with raw meat, 
abiding therein till said flesh is thoroughly done. Pity some of 
these foolhardy people couldn’t find some safer way to earn a 
livelihood than by thus sportively trifling with sacred human life ! 

In reference to sleep, how many of my readers have spent 
sleepless nights for weeks together, when, from nervous irritability, 
trouble, or illness, it has been utterly impossible to snatch a mo¬ 
ment’s respite from the terrible unrest! IIow often the poor, pale, 
sad-hearted mother, as she leans and lingers over the sick-bed of 
her fever stricken darling, finds sleep a stranger to her eyelids, 
and a fearfully intense wakefulness baffle all her attempts to catch 

6 


82 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


even one brief lialf-hour’s slumber and repose! How often the 
u business man,” — he who breathes the atmosphere of money-bags, 
lives wholly on ’change, and whose sweetest melody is the music 
of j ingling dollars ; the man who reads with feverish anxiety the 
daily commercial news, and watches with deep interest the fluctu¬ 
ations of stocks and commodities in the half-glutted marts of the 
“ civilized” world, as he bends in slavish worship at the shrine of 
the golden god, — how often, I repeat, do men like him — and 
they are very plentiful in these dismal days—go day after day, 
for months and } r ears, with scarce a night’s sound sleep ! Thus it 
is plain that mankind can, and often does, support existence, 
when deprived of food, raiment, light, heat, exercise, water, sleep, 
and fresh air. 

Atmospheric air is a compound, one-third of which is oxygen ; 
and this oxygen contains the principle of animal life within the 
minute globules whereof it is formed. Now, if there be an excess 
of this life-principle in a given volume of oxygen, whoever breathes 
it burns up, as it were, and becomes unfitted for normal living. 
If in the air we breathe there be less than a due amount of oxygen, 
containing the vital principle, whoever breathes it slowly but 
surely dies. This discovery — that oxygen is more than a common 
gas ; that it is the vehicle of the vital principle, hence is itself a 
principle — is a most important one to the world, and especially 
the scientific portion thereof. If oxygen were to be withdrawn 
from the air for one short five minutes, every living thing — man 
and plant, animal and insect, reptile and fish, bird and worm — 

X 

would perish instantaneously, and the globe we inhabit be turned 
into one vast festering graveyard. Not a vestige of any kind of 
life would remain to gladden the vision of an angel, should one of 
God’s messengers chance to wing his flight that way. All terres¬ 
trial things would have reached a crisis ; creation’s wheels and 
pinions be effectually clogged ; life itself go out in never-ending 
darkness, and gaunt, dreary chaos ascend the throne of the mun¬ 
dane world, never again to be displaced ! 

The immense importance of this principle may be seen in the 
case of those who delve for lucre in the shape of coal, tin, etc., 
etc., hundreds of feet beneath earth’s surface; for these people 
manage to live with a very limited supply of oxygen and the vital 
principle as inhalants, making amends for it by eating highly 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


83 


phosphoric and oxygenic food ; but the veiy instant that the gas¬ 
eous exhalations, frequently generated in such places, reach a 
point of volume, bulk, or amount, sufficient to absorb or neutralize 
the oxygen, as is liable to occur from the combination forming 
new compounds in those dark abodes, that instant, grim Death, 
mounted on the terrible choke-damp, — as the accumulation of foul 
air is called, — rides forth to annihilate and exterminate eveiy 
moving, living being there ! 

Again : It may happen that oxygen, which is the principle of 
flame, accumulates too fast, gathers in too great volume, and 
unites with other inflammable gases. In such a case, woe be to 
that mine and its hundreds of human occupants, if by accident 
or carelessness the least fiery spark touches that combustible air, 
— for an explosion louder than the roar of a hundred guns upon 
a battle-field takes place ; one vast sheet of red-hot flame leaps 
forth to shatter, blast, and destroy, and in one moment the work 
of years is undone, the mine crushed in, and no living being es¬ 
capes to tell the dreadful story of the awful and sudden doom. 

If the entire oxygen of the air should take fire, as it might by a 
very slight increase of its volume, the entire globe would burn like 
a cotton-field on fire, and the entire surface of the earth be changed 
into solid glass within an hour. 

And yet this terrible agent is man’s best and truest friend. It 
is a splendid nurse ; and a better physician never yet existed, and 
never will. 

This great truth long since forced itself upon the popular mind ; 
but no sooner were the people familiar with the name of ox} T gen, 
than empirical toadstools, in the shape of unprincipled quacks, 
sprung up all over the land, persuading sick people that they 
would speedily get well by breathing what they had the impudence 
to call “vitalized air,” — as if God himself had not sufficiently 
vitalized the great aerial ocean in which the world is cushioned ; 
or that health and power would come again by inhaling “ oxygen- 
ized air,” — as if it were possible to add one particle of oxygen to 
the air we breathe, more than God placed there originally. 

A couple of these harpies once partially convinced me that they 
really effected cures by administering what they called oxygenized 
air, and, liking the theory , I accepted it, and even wrote two or 
three articles in its favor. But when I looked into the matter and 


84 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTOPwY. 


found the theory false, — having been led thereto by an article 
written by the ablest chemist in Boston, — I decided that whoever 
was so unwise as to inhale their stuff was in danger of sudden 
death, while whoever should breathe pure oxygen would as cer¬ 
tainly burn up inside, as if he or she drank pure alcohol and kept 
it up. 

There is but one way in which the inhalation of ox^^gen can do 
any good whatever to a person, sick or well, and that is to breathe 
it just as God intended it should be, — in -the sun-warmed, open 
air! 

I have elsewhere said that no one can be good or virtuous in 
soiled linen. I strengthen it with — nor unless the lungs be well 
inflated. 

Look at the operation of this principle in the case of a man 
wdio is pent up in an old dingy office three-fifths of every da}^. 
He cannot enjoy life. Why? Because his lungs are leathery 
and collapsed, never filled with aught save close, dusty, foul, 
over-breathed, stove-heated air. The man is, though ignorant of 
the fact, dying by inches, because his blood and other fluids are 
loaded down with the foul exhalations which he draws into his sys¬ 
tem, while breathing his own breath over and over again, as he 
does at least five thousand times a day ; and at every breath he 
puts a nail in his own coffin, and drives it home by every half- 
Che wed meal he eats. Now, let that man smell the heart of an 
oak log two feet thick every morning, — after he shall daily cut his 
way to it with a dull axe, — and in one month his ills will vanish 
under this prescription of “ oxygenized air ; ” his weight will have 
increased twenty pounds ; for the labor will have made him puff 
and blow, and his lungs, taking advantage of that puffing and 
blowing, will have luxuriated in their oxygenic treat. Why? 
Because they impart it and its contained vitality to the blood, and 
away that goes, health-charged, through every artery of the body, 
cleaning out the passages as it flies along, leaving a little health 
here and a little there, until, in a few months, the entire man is re¬ 
newed and made over from head to heel. His color comes again: 
his haggardness has gone; he is full of life, vivacity, and fun ; 
pokes your ribs as he retails, with flashing eye and extreme unc¬ 
tion, the last new practical joke he played. He eats three times 
his usual quantum of roast beef and plum pudding ; plays at leap- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


85 


frog with his boys in the parlor, to the utter bewilderment of all 
the rest of the family ; and, when his wife expostulates, embraces 
and kisses her with a fervor that reminds her of the early years 
lang syne; laughs at dyspepsia; bids the mully-grubs good- 
by ; dismisses his doctor; cracks a mot at the expense of the 
cemetery man; outwits his peers on ’change; dances the polka 
with his head-clerk to the can-can tune of Offenbach’s “ Duchess 
of Gerolstein ; ” enjoys life with a rush, generally, and swears he 
cannot die for laughing! So much for oxygen, inhaled as it 
only ought to be, — naturally. 

Now, look at these other pictures : One is the babe of parents, 
fast, fond and foolish, as ever drew breath ; hence their child’s first 
practical lesson is to have a holy horror of fresh air, sunshine, — 
not a hand’s breadth of which ever falls on its pretty face lest it 
get tanned, and some fool declare its grandfather must have been 
an American citizen of African descent, — and cold water. Out 
on such folly ! The poor child is gasping for God’s free air ; and 
its pale lips and sunken blue eyes, white, delicate, semilucent 
skin, narrow chest, and cramped soul and body, are so many elo¬ 
quent protests against baby-cide, and pleadings for more light, 
air, life; more backing against the croup, measles, scarlatina, fe¬ 
vers, worms, w'astings, weazenness, and precocity, to which all ba¬ 
by life is exposed, and which it must meet, conquer, or die itself. 

Instead of exercising common sense, the child is padded on the 
outside, and stuffed and crammed with sweets, cakes, pies, candies, 
and a host of other abominations, all of which diminish its chances 
for health, and tend directly to ripen it prematurely, so that at ten 
years of age, if it lives that long, it is perfectly well posted in cer¬ 
tain baleful school habits, which I have elsewhere stated is the 
same that in Scripture is denounced. In plain words, I refer to 
self-pollution. 

Look now at another baby, the child of yonder Irish woman, 
clad, it is true, in coarse raiment; whose poverty won’t afford 
pies, or such trash, but only the coarsest kind of food, which is, 
however, most deliciously seasoned with that richest of all condi¬ 
ments, — hunger. But poor as she undoubtedly is in this world’s 
goods, she is richer than a queen in real wealth; for she is con¬ 
tented with her lot, by reason of robust health, itself the result of 
labor, and supremely blest and happy in her glorious but uproari- 


86 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


ous family of children, — nine young ones and two at the breast; 
regular loud-tongued roysterers are most of them, the terror of 
squirrels, birds’ nests, and stray dogs, but at the same time the 
hope and pride of Young America, — of Milesian lineage, — chaps 
who will one day give a good account of themselves, if ever the 
foreign foe invades the soil of this fair land "of ours! — girls that 
are girls in every sense, with something tangible rather than 
spring-steel or cotton-paddible to boast of! — cherry-lipped, rosy- 
cheeked, plump, and fair, destined to family honors by and b}^, 
prouder than a queen upon her jewelled throne. No disease lurks 
there ; no consumptive lungs under those breast-bones, and no 
terrible catalogue of aches, pains, bad teeth, and worse breath ; no 
cramps and qualms and female diseases there, because the house 
they live in is built on beef and potatoes, instead of hot drinks 
and fashionable flummery. 

Now, it will be just as difficult for the children of that poor 
woman to fall into the popular train of vices characterizing too 
many American youth, as it will be easy for the children of the 
first couple to be victimized before they reach their fifteenth year. 
The coarser type will outlive the more delicate, and when all is 
over will have been of more real service to the world. 

“ How the candle flickers, Nellie! how the candle flickers ! ” 
said a dying man to his darling wife, the idol of his heart, the be¬ 
loved of his soul, the pure, the true, the beautiful Nellie, wife of 
his soul. u How the candle flickers, darling! put it out, — and 
— go to — bed, weenie. I shall sleep well — to-night — and 
awaken — in the — morning! Good-night, darling! How the 
candle flickers! ” 

It was not the candle that flickered, it was his lamp of life 
burned to the socket; for death was veiling his eyes from the 
world, at fifty years of age,—mid-life, when die should have 
been in his prime. 

Why was he dying? Why did life’s candle flicker ere half- 
burnt out ? Because his had been a life of thought. To embel¬ 
lish immortal pages he had toiled, almost ceaselessly, and wholly 
unrequited, during long years, and that, too, in gaunt poverty, 
while those about him whom his brain-toil had enriched and made 
insolent, fared sumptuously every day, while he was immured in a 
garret painfully laboring for an ungrateful world, — which usually 



LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


87 


crushes a man down, and stamps upon him for falling! As fell 
that man, so have thousands of the world’s true heroes and ^eni 
fallen. But he and they are not blameless. His fault was 
neglect of his lungs and general health while recuperative energy 
yet remained ; and then came colds, coughs, nervous debility^, 
until at last he gave the signal of departure for the summer shores 
of Aidenn in the sad, sad words that fell like leaden rain on the 
heart of her who loved him so tenderly and well. 

“The candle flickers, Nellie. I — shall — sleep — well! Go 
to — bed — weenie. I shall awaken, darling, — I shall awaken in 
the ” — vast eternity ! 

Died for want of an ordinary precaution, and because those 
who make disease a professional study did not, could not, com¬ 
prehend his case. When, oh, when will people of brains learn to 
abide by Charles Reade’s advice, u Genius, genius, take care of 
your carcass ” ? 

This simile of a flickering candle is a true one, for the very in¬ 
stant j^ou cut off the supply of carbon and oxygen, out it goes. 
Supply what it wants, and instantly it regains all its power and 
brightness. Just so it is with our bodies. When sick the}’’ do 
not require a heroic S} T stem of treatment, but simply a clear under¬ 
standing of what elements are in excess or exhaustion, and a 
scientific procedure on that basis will not fail to brighten up many 
a human candle that otherwise would speedily go out forever, as 
far as this life is concerned. 

Of course it is seen from this that the system I claim to have 
discovered, which I apply in practice, and am here trying to im¬ 
part to others, aims to entirely revolutionize the medical practice of 
Christendom ; and that it will do so is just as certain as that truth 
is of more vital stamina than error; and I gratefully appreciate 
the reception of my theory by so large a number of intelligent and 
prominent physicians. 

That system has never yet failed in a single instance. It is, 
briefly, the power and art of extirpating disease from the human 
body by supplying that body with the opposite of disease, which 
is life. Now, it has been demonstrated that all known diseases 
are the result of the excess or absence of one or more of the seven 
principal components of the body, — potassa, manganese, chlorine, 
azote, osmozone, oxygen, and, not as chemists heretofore have 


88 


LOVE AXD ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


contended, phosphorus, but an element embracing that principle, 
and which I have named phosogen. Now, while the administra¬ 
tion of any of such elements in crude form would be useless, it is 
absolutely certain that ethereal, semi-homoeopathic combinations of 
them furnish the most prompt and radical means of cure the world 
has ever seen. Here are the principles; let them be fairly tried 
by the profession, and failure is impossible. Important ones, 
namely, chlorylle, phosodyn, neurine, I have found to be per¬ 
fect agents in the treatment of diseases of the nerves, and those 
resulting from extreme or inverted passionalism; but for other 
diseases other combinations should be exhibited. 

Now, when the physician or nurse administers a cordial of prop¬ 
erly compounded elements, as soon as it reaches the stomach and 
comes in contact with the gastric surfaces, they are instantty 
changed into vital force in liquid form ; for oxygen itself, indepen¬ 
dent of its contained vitality, is not a simple, but a compound, 
whose constituents are heat, light, and electricity, as I have dis¬ 
covered and demonstrated, and that great agent is immediately 
generated in large volume within the body, and in its natural form ; 
thus the blood which takes it up is instantly charged with abso¬ 
lutely new 'life, and the life thus supplied is ramified through every 
nook and corner of the system, and the elements of death, in 
the shape of morbid conditions, and foul and offensive matter, are 
straightway dislodged, expelled the system, the worn-out tissues 
rebuilt, the nervous apparatus rendered firm, the wastes made to 
bloom again, grief taken from the mind, sorrow from the heart, 
morbidity from the soul, and a new lease of existence taken, sim¬ 
ply because the abnormal polarities are changed, and tyj chemical 
conditions entirely altered,—for it is an axiom that the condi¬ 
tions of death cannot coexist with life. 

The human body may be compared to a steam-engine, wdiich so 
long as the fires are kept up goes well; but if the furnace is fed 
with wet wood, the speed slackens, fires go out, and the machine 
comes to a stand-still. But suppose you put the very best wood 
in the boiler instead of the furnace! Why, everybody says you 
are a fool, and laughs you to scorn because you tried to drive an 
engine after that absurd fashion. Well, that is exactly what 
medical men are doing with the human body, in their attempts to 
correct the evils of perverted or excessive passionalism, and the 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


89 


horrid train of nervous aberrations that now afflict the better half 
of civilized society. I am loth to say it, but it is the eternal 
truth nevertheless. If a person is ill, it is fashionable to assign 
the disturbance to the stomach, and to forthwith begin to cram 
that unfortunate organ with purgatives, and a long catalogue of 
herb teas, and outrageous compounds, which, if cast into the sea 
would poison all the fish, turn leviathan’s stomach inside out, and 
line our coasts with rank carcasses, sufficient to kill all who dared 
breathe the pestilent odor ; and yet this is called medical “ science ” ! 
If a woman is sick, give her quassia, say the doctors ; if rheu¬ 
matic, give colchicum; if she is irritable, administer assafoetida, 
bitter almonds, castile soap, croton oil, valerian, and cubebs ; or 
else attempt a cure on strictly homoeopathic principles, — with the 
little end of nothing whittled down to a sharp point; with boli of 
the quintillionth solution of a grain of mustard seed ; else souse 
her, douse her, stew', steam, bake, broil, grill, roast, boil, freeze, or 
drench her; else resort to botanizing her with marley, barley, 
parsley, mullein, rose-leaves, lilies, toadstools, catnip, and daffa¬ 
downdillies ; or pull her to pieces with the “ Movement Cure ; ” or 
take the prescriptions of one of the charlatans, who, calling them¬ 
selves professors, are as ignorant of the chemistry of the human 
bod}^, as they are of who built Baalbec, or u The Old Stone Mill.” 
Pursue either of these courses, and perhaps you will cure the patient 
as fishermen cure shad and salmon — when well dead ! — certainly 
not before that event! 

A man has the catarrh: Well, give him plenty of peppery 
snuff, to irritate the seat of his ailment! Rheumatism: go 
and rub him down with cayenne pepper, coal oil, alcohol, pitch, tar, 
and turp^-otine, ginger, salt, and allspice, —for these are all capi¬ 
tal tilings to '■ cure.” 

Look ! yonder is a fair nale-visaged girl, — said to be dying 
with consumption of the lungs, and being doctored accordingly, 
when the chances are a hundred to one that the seat and source of 
her disease is in the valves of the arteries, fimbrse, pudic nerve, 
uterus, duvernayan glands, or in some of the minute lacunae of 
the pelvic region, producing, of course, nervous exhaustion, 
followed by lung ulcerations and death in nine cases in every ten. 
Now a month’s treatment with common sense, followed with 
either of the four remedies, would put that girl upon her feet, 


90 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


sound and well; but instead of that she is plied with lime, cod- 
liver oil — pah ! — mustard-plaster, onion syrup, iron, soda, 
morphine, and a hundred other unavailing nostrums. 

Wait awhile: “What’s the news?” “She died last night! ” 
And thus it is in the majority of cases of real or apprehended 
tubercular consumption, asthma, dyspepsia, bronchitis, neuralgia, 
female complaints, prolapsus uteri, spinal disease, and all that 
vast host of illnesses that have their origin in disturbed affection, 
unrequited love, uterine diseases, and continued grief in women, 
married and single. And yet these are not diseases, but symptoms 
of one great disease, — a chemical disturbance, originating mainly 
in morbid conditions of the nervous apparatus , hence emotional 
systems, of men and women,—causing radical changes in the 
fluids of the body, and thereby loading them with bitter, acid, 
acrid, corroding, biting elements, which malignant elements never 
were, nor can be, driven out by any amount of drenching or mere 
drugging; for so long as they are there the patient must move 
graveward. Now, when once the fluids are thus charged with these 
angular and corroding atoms, the latter invariably locate them¬ 
selves in, and fasten upon the weakest spot. If the lungs are 
weak and shallow, look out for consumption, bronchitis, asthma, 
pneumonia, or peritonitis ; if other parts be more vulnerable, then 
dyspepsia, epilepsy, nervous weakness, magnetic depletion, fits, 
uterine prolapsus, cancer, scrofula, spinal complaint, are sure to 
follow, and not unfrequently the brain itself is attacked. And no 
drugs can cure them, because they indicate the absence of five 
great elements from the bod} r , and three others in excess. Noav, I 
affirm that a judicious combination of the elements already named 
will unquestionably banish all such forms of disease from the 
world forever, and I believe that I shall not have been many years 
in the land of disbodied souls, ere the discoveries I now announce 
will be accepted the wide world over, and that the binary combina¬ 
tions of these few elements will supersede all other medical agents 
on the globe. In making these disclosures I do not pretend to say 
that I am not desirous of duly reaping a fair profit for the brain- 
toil given to perfect my discoveries, for to do so would be untrue ; 
but personal gain is by no means the strongest motive that actuates 
me ; for I know thele dynamic agents will cure all nervous diseases. 
I know all nervous diseases spring from disarrangements of the 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


91 


sexual system, from various causes, and I believe these diseases 
affect the human soul and spirit on both sides of the eternal eulf. 
and for that reason alone I make these disclosures. True, I am 
grateful when orders come for them, and I gladly shut myself up 
in my laboratory to compound and fill them; but if never a dollar 
came, I should still give my knowledge, and thank God for the 
opportunity of saving hundreds, and, perhaps, by God’s mercy, 
thousands of insane, nervous, and exhausted people of both sexes, 
— unfortunate victims of amative extremism and inverted pas¬ 
sional appetite, —^people now robbed, poisoned, and irreparably 
injured by the rampant quackery of the times in which we live, to 
say nothing of the relief that by these means may be given to the 
vast armies now rapidly marching on to irremediable ruin under 
the baleful influence of the three great fiends of modern civiliza¬ 
tion,— alcohol, opium, and tobacco, — all of which I not only 
believe, but absolutely know, to be not merely destructive to 
physical health, but deeply injurious to man’s immortal interests 
after the passage over the river of death, injurious to a degree 
only less than that of solitary pollution, — the crime against God, 
and beyond all doubt the worst a man can commit against himself. 

Teachers innumerable, male and female, have asserted that love 
is in no wise connected to, associated with, or influenced by, 
amorous desire. So far as my long-continued observations go, 
they are both right and wrong; right, when they elevate the sen¬ 
timent of friendship and call it love ; wrong, when they confound 
the amicive or friendly feeling with the amative passion. 

Affection is an attribute of the soul, per se , and in one of its 
moods or phases is altogether independent of magnetic attraction, 
personal appearance, sex, or condition; and yet it is impossible 
for a really fine soul to fully love a brutal or coarse one; and 
when such anomalies present themselves, as occasionally they do, 
the passion is unhealthy, abnormal, and must be set down to the 
score of insanity. Intensification of friendship undoubtedly con¬ 
stitutes one of the supreme blisses of our post-mortem existence; 
and } T et it would be a poor heaven, in my judgment, in which 
there were no reciprocal play of the purely nerval sexual forces of 
the human soul; for that love, above all other phases of the 
master-passion, is, after all, the attractive chord, chain, motive, 
substance, or principle, which connects the two universal sexes 


92 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


together, and of them constitutes the one grand unity, Man. It 
is entirely different from that which binds together persons of the 
same gender. 

I announce another new truth when I affirm, as I do, that love 
is not only liable to, but often is, the subject of disease, and from 
the diseases thus originated spring nine-tenths of all human ail¬ 
ments. 

Not a tenth part of civilized mankind are free of all effects of 
diseased passion and love, nor can perfect concord reign until all 
are so. The existing state of things can and ought to be remedied. 
If the love of a man be diseased, then there is not sufficient secre¬ 
ting or generating power to produce the prostatic and seminal 
lymph, or to effect the chemico-magnetic change into nerve aura, 
that fluid fire which suffuses and rushes like a dream-tempest 
through our souls, bodies, and spirits, when in presence of one who 
evokes our love, — love in its very essence, purity, and power. 
If a woman’s love-nature be diseased, then her whole better nature 
becomes morbidly changed, and a dreadful catalogue of suffer¬ 
ing gradually fastens upon her, not the greatest of which are the 
innumerable weaknesses, cancers, nervousness, neuralgias, con¬ 
sumptions, and aches, which remorselessly drag her down to pre¬ 
mature death, and whereupon unfeeling quacks wax rich. We 
cannot have great men till we have healthy mothers ! 

It may not, perhaps, be amiss to briefly show the interrelations 
and mutual interdependence existing between our souls, our spirits, 
and our material bodies ; I will therefore briefly do it. 

Over eight-tenths of the food we take consists of water and 
earthy, carbonaceous matter, most of which the body expels, while 
the fine essences enter the blood, are carried to the heart, and 
after being charged with additional oxygen and vitality in the 
lungs, where they are first forced, and afterwards pumped through 
the body, building it up and renewing every part through which it 
passes while swinging round its circle, — nervous, osseous, mus¬ 
cular, cerebral, pelvic, — and thus supplying mental, physical, 
emotional, and passional energy. Now suppose, as is really the 
case in eight out of ten ailing persons, that the lacteals, the 
mesenteric glands, and absorbents are broken down by over-use, 
tobacco, liquor ; or that they are packed and clogged with earthy 
chalky matters, or slimed up with purulent mucus, — why, then 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


93 


over three-fourths of the food taken fails of the end sought: is 
expelleci with the waste, and the blood rushes over its course with 
either too few nourishing elements, or is heavily loaded with 
pestilential substances, utterly hostile to health and vmor, and 
prolific of a thousand pains and penalties. By aid of a power 
peculiar to myself in some respects, at least, I have been able to 
demonstrate that the blood is a clear lymph, in which float myriads 
of round red globules : and that certain chemical conditions of the 
system greatly alter or change the shape of these globules; and 
that wherever they are thus changed pain is an absolutely certain 
resultant. If these globules preserve their proper shape and con¬ 
sistence, they glide along easily, smoothly, and deposit their 
treasures in proper places, — eye-material to the eyes ; nail, bone, 
cartilage, nervous, muscle, bone, salival, prostatic, seminiferous, 
and other materials, all are lodged just where they are wanted. 
But let there be. a chemical alteration, changing their shape, and 
the wrong materials are quite certain to go just where they are not 
wanted; hence irritating particles are frequently lodged in the 
lungs, instead of, perhaps, in the bones, where they properly be¬ 
long. Now these irritant atoms are sure to beget ulcerations, 
which may, and often do, terminate in death. If such atoms are 
lodged in the brain, we have insanity, head trouble, etc. If in 
the nerves, neuralgia follows; if in the arterial valves, the heart 
suffers ; if in the prostate, then seminal troubles ensue ; and so of 
all other parts of the grand bodily machine. Perhaps, because 
this theory is new, it may prove offensive to antiquated medical 
“ science ; ” but it is none the less true and real for all that! 

Any one can swallow peas, currants, or even small shot without 
inconvenience, because the}" are smooth and round ; but if each 
pea, currant, or shot, should happen to be armed with several stiff, 
sharp points, leaning in’all directions, the task were a great deal 
less agreeable. Now, if the blood be loaded down with acid 
acrid, or other morbid matters, indicating a change of chemical 
condition, as well as of magnetic and electric polarity, the blood 
globules become flattened, bulged, angular, and pointed-; hence 
they clog and impede the general circulation. Lodge these angular 
atoms here, there, and everywhere, and we are forthwith tortured 
with sciatica, gout, rheumatism, acute, stationary, chronic, or 
flying. Flying, why? Because by hot fomentations, rubbing, 


94 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


etc., the blood-vessels are warmed. Heat expands ; the channels 
widen, disgorgement occurs, and the fluid blood carries the semi¬ 
solid angular globules somewhere else, and the shoulder agony is 
exchanged for knee torture, — only that, and nothing more ; for 
we never get rid of rheumatism till the blood globules change 
their form, which they will only do when supplied with the de¬ 
ficient elements, or the excessive ones are withdrawn. And 
so with every other form of disease known to man. No 
patient ever yet died of cholera, or yellow fever, to whom 
chlorylle and phosodyn elixir were administered before death 
seized on him! No one ever yet died of consumption who was 
treated on the principles herein laid down. 

It is well, too well, known what slaves mankind are to alcohol, 
opium, and tobacco. Why? Because the globules are retained 
by the blood in a multi-angular shape, and the effort to regain their 
normal form, when the Victim tries to burst his bonds, is exceed¬ 
ingly painful. But suppose these victims take proper means to 
change their abnormal state for a few weeks. What then ? Why 
that angularity is gradual^ and painlessty removed by a chemico- 
dynamic operation on the blood, and the victim is released from 
his gyves forever. Not one such effect can be produced aside from 
the principles here set forth. 

It makes not the slightest difference to me who applies these 
principles practically, so long as their application works toward 
human redemption from the thrall of disease. Had I the capital 
to put my discoveries before the world, and in every household, I 
would be content to die, that man might live ; but I am unable to 
do it, for all that I have ever saved has up oo this hour been spent 
in perfecting what I religiously believe to be the purest and best 
system, and most perfect the world ever yet saw; and this not for 
gain alone, but because I solemnly believe that certain forms of 
disease affect the human soul, and waste it, and that these effects 
are not soon vastated or gotten rid of even beyond the grave. I 
also know that the system I have wrought out will cure these 
special forms of disease, and of both of these things I am as certain 
as that I know my Creator lives and reigns triumphant be} T ond the 
starry sky that bends above our heads ! In the light of these new 
principles, I affirm that potassa will cure the bites of mad dogs, 
rattlesnakes, or an} r other animal poison, administered at any time 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


95 


between the bite and the dreadful moment when, gathering de¬ 
moniac force, the effects rush forth in such appalling horror as to 
fright the souls of bravest men. Why? Because the alkali dis¬ 
solves the virus, expels it from the body, and brings back the 
angular globules to their normal chemical condition, and therefore 
shape. By the application of the same principle, consumption 
and the pale train that accompanies its deadly march is surely 
robbed of all its terrors, and we need no longer be horrified by 
the spectacle of millions of graves of people cut off by that fell 
pest in the midst of life and youth. 

Wilful waste makes woful want; yet to those who chew and 
smoke their lives away, these principles afford the only known and 
positive refuge; while that larger class, who, in } r outh and igno¬ 
rance, have sapped their own lives, manliness, womanhood, beauty, 
courage, health, and power, — who have sacrificed themselves on 
the altar of a deceptive, ruinous, and pernicious private pleasure, — 
the baneful habit of solitary vice, — in these principles and their 
agencies have probably their sole and only earthly salvation. 
[And here let me caution parents and guardians to treat these 
erring ones as patients , not as quasi criminals , for the trouble is 
chemical, not psychical, and kindness is better than its opposite, 
in their, as all other, cases ; for a kind word, fitly spoken, may 
change the whole career of a human being. When it is remembered 
that it is as easy to speak a kind as any other sort of word, and 
also reflect how in one case it may do worlds of good, or in the 
other worlds of evil, is it not strange that so few of the former and 
so many of the latter are uttered? It is true that words are only 
air, but air sometii^s suffocates and destroys. If rightly com¬ 
pounded and good, it gives life and strength; if otherwise, it en¬ 
feebles and kills. Think how much you may do with a kind word, 
and then go and utter them, for there are waiting opportunities on 
the right hand and left of you, and this, above all, in cases where 
from folly or moral accident erring ones have tampered with their 
own lives and happiness, as I believe, here, and after death has 
transported them beyond the darksome river.] 

The whole and only secret of this revolutionary theory of dis¬ 
eases and their remedies is, briefly: oxygen is heat, light and 
electricity in unitary form. When it and phosogen are present 
in the body in proper quantity, it acts as a solvent to all morbid 


96 




LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


accumulations, and expels them from the system, while its con¬ 
tained vif or vital principle builds up and restores. It is the only 
perfect vehicle of the curative principle in existence, and cannot 
be administered through the lungs by any system of inhalation to 
an extent sufficient to do much good, if any at all; and this dis¬ 
covery consists in a means whereby a combination of two or more 
of the seven named elements are made to generate vitality upon 
coming in contact with the gastric, biliary, and pancreatic secre¬ 
tions, positively, promptty, effectively. 

Beautiful, blessed, life-giving, healtli-laden oxygen ! It is thy 
triumph I celebrate ! With thee, the physician of the future shall 
be armed at all points, for thou never failest in thy holy and per¬ 
fect work ! Royal principle ! sweetly sleeping in the virgin’s heart, 
and playing on the infant’s lip! Thou givest zest to the story, 
and point to the epigram ; and thou art the spirit of eloquence on 
the orator’s tongue ! On the rugged mountain-top thou art breathed 
forth by nwriad giant trees, and in the valley thou sighest from 
the corolla of a flower! Thou art the destroying breath of the 
typhoon and sirocco ; and thou the sweet perfume exhaled from the 
lily’s spotless chalice! Thou givest strength and fury to the 
flame that wraps vast forests in sheets of living fire ; and thou 
layest waste great cities, leaving them shrivelled and seared behind 
thee, as thou marchest forward in th} T wrath! And yet thou art 
gentle as^ a mother’s love, — lovely as the blushing dawn, — true 
friend of man when he understandeth thy moods and law; but a. 
bitter teacher of those who know thee not! Thou tender nurse, 
faithful friend, and chief of all physicians, — 

“ They reckon ill who leave thee out! ” 

— thou servant of Heaven! beautifier of earth! maker of happy 
homes ! healer of all human ills ! comforter of our souls ! dispenser 
of life! foe of death! banisher of pain ! — ever blessed, lovely 
beautiful, holy, and God-Sent Principle of Life ! 

The proper study of mankind is Woman ! and precious few are 
they who really know anything about her, although millions of 
those who wear pantaloons and sport whiskers imagine that of all 
other studies of this mundane life of ours they have mastered 
that; but a greater mistake was never made since creation began, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


97 


and the morning stars sang together for joy. If it be true that 
of all enigmas and mysteries on this earth, man is the greatest 
and most profound, then certainly the most difficult part of that 
mighty riddle is the wonderful being called woman, — wonderful 
in many ways and senses, as I shall most abundantly demonstrate 
before the conclusion of this brief article. 

There is an old Talmudic legend concerning the advent of wom¬ 
an on this earth, which goes far toward showing that in many 
things she was understood better some thousands of years before 
the Christian era than she is to-day, even among the most highly 
cultivated and polished circles of modern civilized society i in the 
loftiest centres of learning and refinement. The legend tells us 
that when the idea struck the Elohim that they would people this 
earth with beings only a little inferior to themselves, they were so 
pleased with it that they forthwith set themselves to work to 
gather the very finest and most perfect particles of dust they 
could find in ten thousand years ; which dust their chief straight¬ 
way formed into a man, and, in doing so, used up all the material. 
After enjoying the sight of the new-made being awhile, they put 
him in a very pleasant gardenbut the lonely one was veiy miser¬ 
able and unhapp}-, and at last made such a hideous noise with his 
grumbles and growlings, that, to save their lives, the Elohim could 
not get a wink of sleep. He kept it up, however, night and day, 
till his hair frizzled all over his head, and he grew quite black in the 
face. That was the Talmudic origin of the black race. But one 
day he chanced to go near some still water, and saw his own image 
reflected therein, which sight so frightened him that he stopped 
o-roanino*. Now r the sudden cessation of the noise caused one of the 
Elohim to look out of his window in the sky, to see what on earth 
could be the matter, and, observing the man, he w r ent down and 
asked him what was up. Says the man, “ I’m tired of this garden, 
— it’s altogether too lonesome.” “ Well, I haven’t anything to do 
about that. Who are you, anyhow? I never saw you before, — 
that’s certain ! ” Said the man, “ I wonder, now, why you made 
me, and put me here?” “ I made you? Why, you black wretch, 
I never saw 3’ou till this moment; ” and with that he slapped his 
face, flattened his nose, spread his feet, and he has remained so 
ever since. That first experiment was a failure. After the Elohim 
had discovered his mistake, the council determined to try again, 
7 




98 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTOEY. 


and this time made a fine-looking fellow, and put him into garden 
number two. But he grumbled also, till he grew red in the face, 
scaled the walls, and went for the woods. Failure number two. 
Again they made another man ; but he knew at once what he want¬ 
ed, and so kept continually crying, “ Woli-zoe! woh-zoe!” which 
in the Edenic language signifies u Woman, woman ! ” u Sure 
enough,” said Elohim, “ he very naturally wants a wife ! ” But 
where to get one was the difficulty ; seeing that it took thirty thou¬ 
sand years to collect materials to make three coarse men, it would 
take ten times as long to find the wherewith to make one fine wom¬ 
an. At last one of them suggested making her out of a part of 
a man, and, acting thereupon, they straightway put the three men 
asleep, took a rib from each, and thereof made three females or 
woh-zoes, which means woman, seeing that she was taken out 
of man. Now when the three men woke up, the}^ were surprised 
and delighted exceedingly. The black man took his Dinah to Af¬ 
rica, and stayed there ; the red man took his squaw r to America; 
the white man was so delighted with his sweetheart that he began 
to whistle “ Over the hills and far away,” with variations on 
u Yankee Doodle,” and “Push along, keep moving,” and he has 
kept moving from that day to this, evincing his superiority to the 
other two b} r demonstrating practically that though a rolling stone 
gathers no moss, yet a travelling man gains knowledge. In proof 
of which, the white man to-day is master of the world, and says, 
does, and knows just twice as much as both the others combined. 
The white woman is chief of all women, as the white man is un¬ 
questioned king of all who wear the human form; and yet, wise 
and knowing as he undoubtedly is, he has yet to learn a thing or 
two about women. 

Among other errors concerning her, now prevalent, is the ab¬ 
surd idea, that, sex excepted, she is precisely what man is, in all 
respects whatever; while the truth of the case is, that in all re¬ 
spects she is his opposite and counterpart, mentally, socially, phys¬ 
ically, aesthetically, physiologically, anatomically, magnetically, 
electrically, chemically, and mechanically; and to regard her as 
being but a softer, finer, more delicate sort of man, or male, is not 
only a grave mistake, but one that does her rank injustice. And 
yet how many thousands of men fall headlong into it, and during 
the whole course of their lives are stone blind to some of the most 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


99 


beautiful facts of existence. For instance: woman everywhere, 
and under all circumstances, is cleaner than man. Soap and water, 
fresh linen and free air, will always purify her, no matter what 
her previous state may have been. Not so with man. Let the 
cleanest man living wash in forty clear, pure, fresh tubs of water, 
one after another, and the last water will be dark and cloudy ! 
But let a woman do so, and the thirty-five last tubs of water will 
be as pure and clear and free from clouds as the forty-first one, just 
drawn from the running brook or bubbling spring upon the hill¬ 
side. Again : there is said to be ever a dirty corner in the mind 
of every man that treads, or has ever trodden, the earth. This is 

never true of woman ! and doubtless never will be. 

* 

That she is magnetically different from man is proved by the 
superior results of the care and nursing of both sexes by woman 
and man. In the case of man he merely allays physical anguish, 
while woman does that better still, and at the same time soothes 
the spirit, and leads back, with silken cords, the rebellious soul to 
virtue, truth, and God 1 Anatomical^ she differs, being wide in 
the pelvis, where man is narrow, and narrow in the shoulders, 
where man is wide. She eats the same food man does, and drinks 
the same general fluids ; but she makes a far different use of them ; 
for while man converts them into muscular force, woman changes 
them into nervous power ; milk, — during lactation ; and into love 
and affection, besides various forces that are unknown to the 
sterner sex. Physically, she is immeasurably inferior in strength ; 
but in endurance, fortitude, courage to undergo, and victoriously 
to endure pain, she rises as far above the best man living, as the 
midsummer sun transcends a tallow candle ! If any man were 
called upon to suffer one-half the physical anguish that every 
female has to encounter, the graveyards would overflow with their 
dead bodies within a single year! If men had to suffer men¬ 
tally half that women do every month of their lfves, the insane 
retreats and mad-houses would be crammed to suffocation. Let 
no one henceforth speak sneeringly of Woman as being “the 
weaker vessel.” 

This point will be clearer when it is-understood that a woman’s 
nerves are not only far more in number than man’s, but the}^ are 
infinitely finer, more subtle, sensitive, and acute; hence she is 
liable to a variety of diseases of a purely nervous character. 


100 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


peculiar to her sex alone ; for instance, variously seated neural¬ 
gia, — one of the most excruciating tortures the human fi#nne is 
capable of enduring; while, when we speak of the pangs of mater¬ 
nity, ulcerations, prolapsus, ovarian tumors, swelled breast, 
profuse, painful, suppressed or abnormal periods, we speak of 
things whereof man can have no experience whatever, and there¬ 
fore no adequate idea. Even learned professors know very little 
of woman, and not one in a thousand has a clear understanding 
of her nature, — a being so delicate, so full of mystery, and in 
whom the nervous life is all in all. Disappoint a man in love, and 
he straightway recovers from the shock. Disappoint a woman, 
and forthwith she languishes, falls into consumption, and dies. 
It is a very grievous sin to do such a thing. She needs — always 
needs—the love and support of a protecting arm, — not false 
love, but true. When she has this, sick or well, she is a tower of 
grandeur, and you cannot deceive her. Without it, she becomes 
warped and soured, and the prey of a hundred forms of disease ; 
and to cure which, people pill, purge, leech, blister, and narcotize 
her. What nonsense! Blue pill for a breaking heart! Catnip 
tea for disappointed love ! Blister plasters for a jealous fit! A 
new bonnet to pay for nights of absence and da}^s of cruelty, 
neglect, and abuse! 

To successfully treat the diseases of woman requires a vast deal 
more of science, art, culture, patience, experience, and ability, than 

it does to treat those of the opposite sex, for the reason that her 

» 

organism is infinitely more complex, and her mission and function 
broader and deeper than man’s. “Not so,” says a caviller. 
u Pray, what has woman done in the world? Has not man built 
civilization, erected cities, states, and mighty kingdoms? made 
ships, mills, railways? has he not done all this?” I answer, 
“Most certainly he has; but look you, sir, — Woman makes the 
man who in turf? does these mighty things /” 

The great physical difference between the sexes consists in the 
uterine system of organs and its tremendous offices,— that of build¬ 
ing human bodies and incarnating human souls,— and the mam¬ 
mary glands, or breasts, whereby the young soul is nurtured into 
life and strength. Now, if by any cause whatever, the life or hap¬ 
piness of the woman be disturbed, there is straightway a reaction 
upon the breasts, heart, lungs, and the entire uterine system, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


101 


involving the dreadful chances of cancer, heart disease, consumption, 
dyspepsia, and prolapsus, to say nothing of the hundred other spe¬ 
cific forms of female diseases, often resulting in lifelong misery, 
mental agony, and early death,— and all from a variety of causes 
to which no man can possibly be exposed. Hence I again repeat, 
and without fear of successful contradiction, that at least ten times 
the skill is required in treating her diseases than in those of man 
alone. 

If a man receives a blow upon the breast, he speedily recovers ; 
not so with woman ; for it may so injure her as to cause tumors, 
ulcers, or cancer ; and if not, then the milk glands may be ruined 
for life ; and on her ability to do justice to her child, both before 
and after birth, depends the inferiority or superiority of the race 
of men who are to rule the world hereafter. It is sad truth that I 
utter when I say that nine-tenths of the women of this country labor 
under some form of disease peculiar to them alone. They are most 
common and distressing, by reason of their annoyance and exhaust¬ 
ing effects, the constant irritation, and the extreme difficulty 
experienced in getting rid of them when once firmly settled upon 
the system of the sufferers. They are common to both married and 
unmarried women, but far more so among the former than the latter 
class, owing to a variety of causes. One most distressing and de¬ 
pressing trouble is prolapsus of the uterus, with which most American 
ladies are more or less afflicted ; and to be relieved of which, they 
often resort to very questionable means, among which are the forty 
thousand illiterate, money-catching quacks,— with their, catholi- 
cons, balsams, pessaries, belts, and Heaven only knows how many 
more detestable, cruel, poisonous, inefficient, yet always unavailing 
and positively injurious contrivances. More than nine-tenths of 
woman’s illnesses is the result of vital and nervous exhaustion. It 
comes of too hard physical labor, lifting, too frequent child-bearing, 
and, what is worse yet, and the principal cause of four-fifths of it, 
from continual domestic inquietude and fretting. 

This last cause alone is productive of far more illness than would 
readily be believed, did not general observation and experience 
demonstrate it beyond all cavil. In the first place, passion’s true 
object, so far as nature is concerned, is offspring, and whenever, 
wherever, and by whomsoever it is habitually and unwisely per¬ 
verted to other and mere animal, not pure affectional uses, it is a 


102 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


desecration of woman’s holy nature, and an outrage on the exquis¬ 
ite sanctities of her being ! 

Unwelcome u love ” is no love at all. To force nature is a crime 
against God. The strain is too heavy on the nervous system, to 
say nothing about deeper parts of human nature. That’s the way 
that some, and a good many wives are poisoned. That is the reason 
why so many of them mysteriously waste away, sicken, grow 
pale, thin, waxen, and finally quit the earth, and send 
their forms to early graves, — like blasted fruit, falling before half 
ripened. It is a terrible picture, but a true one. 

If poison— prussic acid or %trychnine, for instance — be admin¬ 
istered to a woman, she dies from its effects. But why? Because 
it enters the seat of life, changes the nature of her blood and death 
follows. Well, she may be poisoned quite as effectively in other 
ways ; for she may be exhausted and die for want of nervous ener¬ 
gy ; or she may have morbid secretions, the poison of which is sure 
to enter the blood, until the blood is so heavily charged therewith 
that the disease assumes another form, while retaining the old one, 
and, before she is aware of it, the foul-fiend Consumption has laid 
siege to her lungs, or Scrofula in some of its myriad forms — from 
cancer to salt rheum — saps the foundation of her health forever. 
And yet a certain class of physicians tell us that her ailments can 
be cured with drugs, herb teas, bathing, magnetic treatment, elec¬ 
tric shocks, or any one of ten thousand methods, — all and singular 
of which are as worthless and useless as a last year’s almanac ; for 
you might as well expect an oyster to climb a tree, or to see a whale 
dance the polka, as to expect utter impossibilities in the direction 
indicated ; for never, since the world began, did any such treatment 
cure a woman of the troubles referred to ; nor is it possible unless 
the active and producing cause be first understood, then attacked, 
and finally removed. And they cannot be so removed unless she 
be purified and strengthened. Will herb teas do this important 
work? Will all the drugs ever imported — to kill patients and 
make doctors rich—do it? Will washing, sousing, dousing, scald¬ 
ing, accomplish the desired work? Will any amount of magnet¬ 
izing, electrifying, or pulling, hauling, blistering, bleeding, 
purging, plastering, or manipulation, solve the great problem and 
banish these diseases? I answer most emphatically, no ! Why? 
Because all these methods proceed upon the plan of relieving symp- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


103 


toms, not fighting the real disease ; and just as long as such plans 
are adhered to, just so long will the ag6nizing groans of millions 
of suffering women ascend to heaven, craving the help from thence 
that is denied them here. 

To cure the outer, physical, and most of the mental and emo¬ 
tional ills of women, nature herself must be taken as both copy 
and guide. Indian women, negresses, and, in fact, none of the 
dark-skinned women of the world, are ever troubled with the griev¬ 
ous catalogue of disorders and complaints that afflict so many 
millions of the fair daughters and mothers of our otherwise favored 
country. And why is this? The answer is plain. In the first place 
they are born right, and of perfectly healthy mothers, whatever 
may be said of them on the score of morals, beauty, and intelli¬ 
gence, — they being confessedly as far inferior to American 
women in these three respects, as themselves are undoubtedly in¬ 
ferior to their dark-skinned sisters in point of health and physical 
stamina. This is proved by their utter freedom from all diseases 
of the pelvis and nerves, and by their exceeding brief, and almost 
painless, illness in confinement; nor is this fact accounted for on the 
theory that were their children as large-brained as American babes, 
their sufferings would equal those of our wives and mothers; for 
there are large-brained oriental people, but the results in no 
wise differ from the rule laid down. 

Now, why this immunity from disease? I reply : because, first, 
they live right; they are not pampered with health-destroying 
hot teas, coffees, pork-fat, sweets, quack doctors, or any other 
abomination. Second, they have plenty of out-door exercise ; con¬ 
sequently their lungs are well inflated and their blood oxygenized. 
And, third, they are not worn out by exactions which kill half the 
white wives before their lives are more than half spent! 

The domestic habits of American women are by no means calcu¬ 
lated to promote health or prolong life. An excess of fat food, 
doughnuts, rich, indigestible pastry, hot drinks, hot air, feather 
beds, close rooms, lack of amusement, warm bread, and com¬ 
pressed chests, are, each and all, making sad marks upon American 
women. But this is not the worst feature of the case, by any 
means, in two respects. 1st. Whatever other just things our 
country may boast, — whatever pride it may fairly have in its 
institutions,—it is a deplorable thing that marriage in our land, 


104 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


as a general thing, is anything but abed of roses,” as is dem¬ 
onstrated in a thousand ways daily 7 in every section of the land. 
Disgust, discontent, hidden grief, and a hundred real and imagi¬ 
nary evils and wrongs, are constantly paling the cheeks and dim¬ 
ming the eves of scores of thousands of wives in this our fair 
and vast domain. It is certain that scores of thousands of wives 
perish yearly, — victims of thoughtlessness on the part of others 
and themselves too. They have failed to fortify 7 themselves — 
their nerves and constitutions — against the excessive drainage to 
which too many of them are exposed. A very little knowledge of 
the right sort would enable them to successfully do this, and no 
one be the wiser for, or the loser by, it. Never shall I forget the 
terrible impression made upon me by the account of a young wife’s 
dying bed, told to me by Mrs. Reed, of Boston: a fair young 
creature, — a gazelle, — mated with a brutal elephant,—a thing 

' f 

shaped like a man, but who had no more real manhood than a wild 
buffalo. Now, had that murdered wife —a victim to Christian 
marriage — been wise, as she might have been, she could have 
preserved her life and health in spite of the thing that called him¬ 
self her husband. 

2d. Women, when afflicted, frequently 7 become the victims of 
charlatanry and medical mal-practice to an alarming extent, and it 
is an open question whether the outrageous exposures, operations, 
indelicate manipulations, heroic drugging, and unmanly, unscien¬ 
tific, and inhuman treatment generally, to which they are subject, 
are not more fatal and injurious, in the result, than the original dis¬ 
ease sought to be remedied ! I hold the man, physician or not, 
who unnecessarily violates the holy sanctities of woman, and rudely 
assails her delicacy, as being no man at all; and here, let me say, 
is to be found one of the prolific causes of the general unhappiness 
of woman in wedded life. Husbands forget- three things of vast 
importance to the happiness of wedlock : that love can only be 
maintained by tenderness, consideration, and respect; and that 
he comes too near, who comes to be denied ; and that it is not, and 
never was or will be, true, that a man may do what he likes with 
his own! 

But where unhealth exists from domestic causes, the woman has 
a sure relief, and it mainly consists in expanding the lungs, brac¬ 
ing and invigorating the nervous system; the means adapted 

% 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


105 


specially to which end, I liaye already indicated, in oxygenization. 
But, the question rises: u W hat is thi»5 oxygenization of which 
you speak ? and by what method is it done ? and how does it act 
to produce results so desirable to nearly every female in the land ? ” 
These are very just and pertinent questions, demanding clear and 
explicit answers. In the first place, then, it is impossible for a 
woman to be ill, in the direction here alluded to, if her lun or s be 
large and sound, her blood pure, and her waist uncramped by the 
tyranny ot fashion. But it her lungs be squeezed into the shape 
of a blue-bottle fly, or an hour-glass, it is impossible that they can 
be filled with fresh air, or any air at all; and if they are not so 
filled at every breath she draws, the blood that rushes to the lungs 
from the heart canno.t receive the due share of air to which they 
are entitled, and for which they were created. Now, if such is the 

case, it follows that by degrees the blood becomes foul, because it 

♦ 

cannot rid itself of the impure and noxious substances gathered 
from all parts of the body, and of which it would speedily dis¬ 
charge itself, if the heart and the lungs were permitted to do their 
full duty. 

I have alread}^ demonstrated that the body of woman is infinitely 
finer, more delicate and susceptible to all sorts of impressions and 
influences, than is that of man ; and, by reason of her sex and its 
responsibilities, she is doubly liable to what man never can be, — 
disarrangement of peculiar organs. 

I need not say — for every one knows perfect^ well —that the 
uterus (and its appendages) is the most wonderfully delicate and 
sensitive mechanism ever constructed by the hand of the living 
God; for in it, b}’ it, and through it, the purpose is accomplished 
and completed, for which the Eternal Being has ceaselessly 
labored during countless millions of rolling centuries! It is the 
sacred recess wherein nature’s loftiest and finest work, is done! 
It is the sealed and thrice-holy laboratory, wherein God manufac¬ 
tures the most surprising machines. He builds the most exquisite 
furnaces therein, — witness the lungs ! The most magnificent chemi¬ 
cal works ; witness the stomach of a babe, — a machine that 
converts gross food into eternal and 'infinite thought, and im¬ 
perishable mind! The most wonderful dyeing works in existence, 
for what can equal the marble purity of an infant’s skin ? or the 
carnation of a maiden’s cheek? or the blushing coral of her lips? 


106 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


Behold the fourteen miles of blood-vessels, and the five hundred 
miles of nervous filament, '"every one of which is an electric tele¬ 
graph a million times more perfect than that of Morse ! Behold 
the skin that covers the human form, with its forty-five millions of 
pores, through which is hourly sifted noxious substances too fine 
to be seen by the human eye! The human eye itself! What 
microscope can rival it? What telescope compare in elaborateness 
and use? The ear ! What a wonderful instrument! Behold the 
mystery of the hand and arm ! Look at the astonishing perfect¬ 
ness of the wheels, levers, hinges, doors, cells, wells, pumps, and 
pillars of the human structure, and you are lost in amazement at 
its extraordinary and marvellous workmanship! Yet it is all 
fashioned and completed in the uterus of woman ! Nor is this all. 
When we look at the human body, with all its wondrous workman¬ 
ship, we realize the stupendous truth that it was created especially 
as the temporary residence of the eternally enduring human soul. 
And that soul itself, with all its transcendent powers for good and 
evil, is fashioned, biased, built up and modelled for all eternity , 
within its holy walls, from whence it is launched upon the waves 
of eternal ages ; and its destiny here and hereafter unquestionably 
is determined before it sees the light, by the happy or unhappy, 
sick or well, condition of the mother whose work it chances to 
be ! In Heaven’s name, then, how can we expect wfives to bring 
forth children but a little inferior to angels in perfection, while the 
mothers are in some respects treated inconsiderately, rudety, and 
ignorantly, like unto the beasts that perish? Now observe : what¬ 
ever sensation, emotion, pleasure, or pain the woman has, be it 
mental or physical, immediate^ acts upon the uterus, and its ap¬ 
pendages, causing either pleasurable, healthful feelings to pervade 
her entire being, or inducing pain. But if, from cramped or dis¬ 
eased lungs, the blood be impure and charged with noxious sub¬ 
stances, there is sure to be trouble, either in the uterine, digestive, 
or nervous system, but mainly in the former, and manifested by 
weakness in the back and loins, nervous irritability, sickness, nau¬ 
sea, side-pains, headaches, and impure catamenia, — not unfre- 
quently ultimating in ulcers, cancer, or confirmed consumption. 
Frequently the uterine ligaments become weak, relaxed, flimsy, and 
suffer the uterus to fall forward, backward, descend, or become 
partially turned inside out; and if it become bruised while thus 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


107 


hanging down, as it very often is, cancer may follow, or a chronic 
induration supervene, — in either case causing a most intolerable 
anguish, or a lingering, painful, wasting illness, to which death 
itself is very often preferable. For this state of things, I have 
never found any agent at all comparable to Phosodyn, — an ele¬ 
ment closely approximating the principle of vitality itself, because it 
is speedily absorbed by the blood, is carried to the lungs, — which it 
heals it ailing, — and from there, having gained additional oxygen 
from the air, back to the heart, which, with renewed cnergv, sends it 
whirling, flying, searching, into and through every vein, artery, cell, 
muscle, organ, and crevice of the entire body, leaving not a single 
spot unvisited, unsearched, unexplored by the life-charged blood. I 
say life-charged, for this subtle agent most assuredly is very akin 
to life itself, and while as perfectly harmless as the air we breathe, 
is, like that very air, the accredited vehicle of muscular, digestive, 
cerebral, and nervous energy; for wherever it goes it carries life, 
vigor, health, and strength. The lungs, be they never so badty 
diseased, immediately begin to heal. Sleepless nights are ex¬ 
changed for hours of sweet slumber and calm repose. Exhausted 
nerves gain new thrills of gleeful, joyous life, activity, and vigor. 
The dyspeptic stomach regains its healthful tone; the liver is 
forthwith cleansed and purified ; the kidneys begin to thoroughly 
do their proper work, and the excess of uric acid, urea, chalk, car¬ 
bonate of lime, pus, slime, and poison, is strained from the blood, 
as it ought to be, and is, through the bladder, effectually cast 
forth from the body. The brain is relieved from pressure, and its 
functions are again effectively carried on. The ligaments of the 
uterus contract, and, as they do so, the organ is drawn up and back 
to its former place. The acrid secretions are effectually cut off; 
the scrofulous humors that have tainted the blood are completely 
and thoroughly nullified, rendered harmless and evacuated from 
the s} T stem; and the patient’s groans and heart-rending sighs are 
heard no more ; for they are changed to notes of joy and gladness, 
hope and rest, by this most thorough of all known agents. 

The value of these principles in the treatment of female dis¬ 
eases alone cannot be computed, by millions even; for just as it 
would be impossible to weigh out or measure the full amount of 
pain and agony endured in a single year by the women of this 
country, even so it would be impossible to estimate the amount of 


108 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 




good possible to be accomplished by its means. All other at¬ 
tempts — for they are and were attempts only — that have hitherto 
been made to cure nervous diseases, especially those of women, 
have been either the hap-hazard essayals of ignorance, the results 
of errant quackery and empiricism, or the lamentable experiments 
of physicians who went on the theory that one class of agents alone 
would cure them, and what might be given to a man would also do for 
a woman; when, in fact, the chemical difference between the two 
sexes ought to have taught them a far different doctrine. Give a 
good chemist a bloody handkerchief taken from a cut hand, and he 
will tell you whether it is that of a man or woman; hence the 
idea of treating both sexes alike for disease is absurd, but not 
quite so illogical as the attempts daily made to relieve women of 
their own peculiar ailments by flooding the stomach with all sorts 
of so-called “medical” agents, but which are mainly ineffective, 
if not poisonous. Most medicines merely excite the stomach to 
renewed activity in the effort to dislodge and get rid of what is 
poured into it. They act upon the mucous membrane and. excite 
the glands to increased action, and the engendered slime invests 
or dissolves the drugs, and they are carried from the body; but, in 
nearly all cases, leave that body in a far worse condition than ever. 
Thus, by mal-treatment, five-sixths of all the women of our country 
are invalids in reality, and, were it not for the wonderful endur¬ 
ance of American women over all others, by reason of their larger 
and finer brain, and nervous systems, a very large percentage 
of them would die before they do. 

“ I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the 
coming day ; nor a storm so furious or dreadful as to prevent the 
return of warm sunshine and a cloudless sky ! ” 

Not every one who proclaims himself your friend will stand by 
you when friendship is most needed. 

Listen well to all advice, — and follow your own. 

It is bad policy to give your last coat away; and worse to be¬ 
lieve what all men say they mean. 

It is poor wisdom to sell your friend for present gain. 

Husbands were not made to be destroyed for a wife or mother- 
in-law’s whims; nor were wives made to be neglected for a wan¬ 
ton’s smiles. An ounce of love is worth a ton of passion ; and it 
won’t do to always speak your mind or give your suspicions to 


i 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


109 


the winds. Stop and think ! Consider, soul, consider ! A hus¬ 
band is worth more than a ke} r or a portrait! Don’t you think so? 

All modern theories of diseases are wrong; they are not in 
the blood, but are the results of wrong, excessive, scant, or mor¬ 
bid magnetism; hence are to be thoroughly cured only by mag¬ 
netic means, either directly, or by magnetic medical agents. 

Never yet was an injury so deep that time could not assuage it; 
nor an angry man that did not injure himself more than he did the 
object of his wrath ; nor an enemy so bitter but that right and 
justice in his heart did not eloquently appeal for his opponent; 
nor was there ever a trouble but that, somehow, a woman was at 
the bottom of it; nor a jo}^ that she did not create ; nor a hatred 
equal to hers ; nor a friendship half so true as woman’s. She is 
a creature very weak, 3 T et capable of twisting the strongest man 
that ever lived around her little finger; little, but great, and who 
can reduce, the sternest man’s resolutions into the consistency of 
soft-soap before he can say “ Jack Robinson.” 

I have never failed to observe that those who loudest denounced 
the amative passion as “animal,” “unholy,” “ impure,” and the 
like, were its veriest slaves. 

Never sell 3 T our bed or fool it awa3 r . It is bad polic3 r . . .1 never 
knew either doctors or philosophers to speak well of each other ; 
a “ strong-minded ” woman who was not a termagant at home ; or 
a moral reformer that had not a leak in his character, or a soft 
spot in his head. 

A husband — a true one — is worth ten thousand “ friends,” and 
a true wife worth a myriad wantons. 

I have never known a famil3 T difficulty that did not originate in 
passional satiety, or disturbance of the magnetic equilibrium be¬ 
tween couples, and consequently none that were incurable. Man 
is a whimsical creature, — a curious mixture of good and evil; 
woman a bundle of strange contradictions. Both are God’s mas¬ 
ter-work ; and if each stopped to think a little before a given 
action, there would be less domestic trouble in the world. 

I know that men and women fail and die through feebleness of 
will ; that love lieth at the foundation ; that silence is strength ; 
and that goodness alone is power ; hence that though all the world 
array itself against a man, yet, if he be right, God and himself are 
a majority; and, lastly, I know that a great deal of life’s miseries 


110 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


spring fiom unrequited love, — the unappeased longing and 3^earn- 
ing for the great human right, — that is, the right to be loved for 
ourselves alone, not merely for the accidents that environ us. 

* * * * * * * * *«* * 

It is a mistake to suppose that sex, and all that it implies, save 
only propagation, — which is confined to our physical existence, 
— ceases at death ; for, beyond all doubt, it accompanies us beyond 
the grave, and it were a poor immortality if it did not. I cannot 
here enlarge upon this stupendous truth, but the curious reader 
will find that whole matter treated at length in the work entitled 
“ After Death; or, Disembodied Man.” .... I desire to 
call attention to three painful facts, connected with love and its 
hidden liistoiy, and these are: that by human disregard of the 
laws of love three awful curses have been entailed upon mankind, 
the first and worst of which is the social evil,—prostitution 
and its awful consequence, the various forms of the syphilitic 
disease, frequently transmitted to posterity, and condemning 
thousands of innocent people to drag it with them through life un¬ 
der the more respectable name of scrofula. Let us all devoutly 
thank God that this infernal pest bids fair to lose its hold upon 
mankind by reason of the splendid Alexipharmic discoveries of the 
peerless English student, Dr. Bowers, — all honor to his name ! — 
whose research resulted so brilliantly in the discovery of the means 
of fairly crushing this hydra of the world, and who so freely sends 
forth his knowledge to benefit mankind. What with Bowers fight¬ 
ing the syphilitic dragon, and good people pitying and caring for 
the outcast, let us devoutly hope that these twin scourges will 
soon be banished from the world. The third gorgon — and equally 
bad in some respects, and, so far as the soul is concerned, ivorse 
one, the vice learned generally at school, and persisted in till 
ruin follows — must be gotten rid of by parents telling their chil¬ 
dren plainly all about the evil, and by the general physiologi¬ 
cal enlightenment of the people at large. That will do it. 

Doubtless there are those who read this book who will wonder 
wh} r , in a treatise on human love, I have inserted several profound 
scientific treatises concerning parasites, monads, spores, fungi, and 
chemical matters generally. To such I answer, because the pres¬ 
ence of such unsuspected causes may be productive of changes in 
the body which may, and often do, act and react upon the soul and 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


Ill 


affectional nature, and facts such as I have herein set forth, are 
valuable and worthy of consideration. 

' Harmony is order and order is secured by law. I have seen so¬ 
cial disorder created by disobedience to law ; but never witnessed 
harmony promoted by compromise of principle. The laws of na¬ 
ture are just and merciful, and no person need hope to find happi¬ 
ness while such are disregarded. 

Among people generally inharmonious relations are formed, and, 
being formed, are constantly aggravating the parties, who instead 
of harmonizing themselves, irritate the minds of each other. Per¬ 
sons who teach the beauties of conjugal philosophy should not 
practically deny their instructions by discarding the obligations of 
their voluntary acts. It matters not how beautiful the philosophy 
of nature may be, if man or woman be not morally true to the 
laws which govern them. I have seen harmony in married life; 
an?i I have seen antagonism and discord. Are the elements of 
nature at such variance that peace and order cannot be maintained 
between parties? Has God so ordered the existing social order of 
husband and wife, that discord cannot be avoided ; that war must 
continue during such relation ? What are the elements constituting 
the one that are not discernible in the other? Are not all flesh 
and blood, and do not the same elements make each? A second 
thought will show that the discords of married life originate, not 

always in the soul or body, but in the ignorance of the spirits 
* 

which are coupled. When parties become alienated from each 
other by law ; when married persons separate because they have 
no affinity, it often proves only their own ignorance of truth, if 
not their moral delinquency and faithlessness to their covenant 
engagements. 

I have watched the progress of parties seeking divorce from 
each other; but I have not yet seen a case which did not arise 
from either ignorance of nature’s laws or a gross want of integ- 
rity. It is true that such delinquency may not fasten itself to 
both parties, but it is often sure to belong to one or the other. 

Inharmonies are generally most severely felt in those minds not 
improved by proper culture. And the difficulty exists not because 
nature, in her order, has brought together parties in antagonism, 



112 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


but because those parties have not become harmonious in them, 
selves. Thus, by looking through their ignorance, through then- 
own unrefined spectacles, they see things in an inverted position, 
and «;ive themselves the consolation that nature has made them so, 
when the true philosophy of nature is, that men and women shall 
always seek to improve their relations when inharmonious condi¬ 


tions offend them. 

To run away from discord will not remove it, nor will the prin¬ 
ciple of right and truth be vindicated b}^ shrinking from the duties 
based upon the integrity of social contracts. Let all parties, mat¬ 
rimonially united, do their duties to each other faithfully, and not 
disgrace themselves by abandoning integrity under a plea that 
nature has hedged their paths to happiness, by making them so 
much unlike that they can never agree. But if, after a fair trial, 
it is found that the incompatibility is too deep, — that it is wholly 
incurable, — then, for such couples to remain bound together 
is slieei* insanity, and mutual suicide and murder. Let them 
part. 

The man who has so little knowledge of human nature as to 


seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will 
waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he 
purposes to remove. 

There is beauty in the helplessness of woman* The clinging 
trust which searches for extraneous support is graceful and touch¬ 
ing. Timidity is the attribute of her sex; but to herself it is not 
without its dangers, its inconveniences, and its sufferings. Her 
first effort at comparative freedom is bitter enough; for the deli¬ 
cate mind shrinks from every unaccustomed contact, and the 
warm and gushing heart closes itself, like the blossom of the sen¬ 
sitive plant, at every approach. Man may at once determine his 
position, and assert his place ; woman has hers to seek ; and, alas ! 
I fear me, that however she may appear to turn a calm brow 
and a quiet lip to the crowd through which she makes her way, that 
brow throbs, and that lip quivers, to the last, until, like a wounded 
bird, she can once more wing her way to the tranquil home where 
the drooping head will be fondly raised, and the fluttering heart 
laid to rest. The dependence of woman in the common affairs of 
life is, nevertheless, rather the effect of custom than necessity. 
We have many and brilliant proofs that, where need is, she can be 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


113 


sufficient to herself, and play her part in the great drama of exist¬ 
ence with credit, if not with comfort. The yearnings of her soli¬ 
tary spirit, the outgushings of her shrinking sensibility, the crav¬ 
ings of her alienated heart, are indulged only in the quiet holiness 
of her solitude. The world sees not, guesses not the conflict; 
and in the ignorance of others lies her strength. The secret of her 
weakness is hidden in the depths of her own bosom; and she 
moves on, amid the heat and the hurry of existence, and with a 
seal set upon her nature, to be broken .only by fond and loving 
hands, or dissolved in the tears of recovered home affection. 

Heaven knows how many simple letters from simple-minded 
women have been kissed, cherished, and wept over b} r men of lofty 

4 

intellect. So it will always be to the end of time. It is a lesson 
worth learning, by those young creatures, who seek to allure by their 
accomplishments, or dazzle by their genius, that though he may 
admire, no man ever loves a woman for these things. He loves her 
for what is essentially distinct from, though incompatible with them, 
— her woman’s nature and her woman’s heart. This is why we so 
often see a man of high genius or intellectual power pass by the 
De Staels and Corinnes, to take into his bosom some wayside flower, 
who has nothing on earth to make her worthy of him, except 
that she is — what so few “female celebrities” are — a true 
woman. 

The sweetest, the most clinging affection is often shaken by the 
slightest breath of unkindness, as the delicate rings and tendrils 
of the vine are agitated by the faintest air that blows in summer. 
An unkind word from one beloved often draws blood from many a 
heart, which would defy the battle-axe of hatred or the keenest 
edge of vindictive satire. Nay, the shade, the gloom of the face 
familiar and dear, awakens grief and pain. These are the little 
thorns which, though men of rough form make their way through 
them without feeling much, extremely incommode persons of a 
more refined turn, in their journey through life, and make their 
travelling irksome and unpleasant. 

The clearness and purity of one’s mind is never better proved 
than in discovering its own faults at first view, as when a stream 
shows the dirt at the bottom, it shows also the transparency of the 
water; yet I believe all souls are intrinsically good ! 


8 



114 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


Never yet 

Knew I a whole, true man, of Jove-like port, 

But in his heart of hearts there lived and reigned 
A very woman, — sensitive and quick 
To teach him tears and laughter, born of toys 
That meaner souls may mock at. If a man 
Include not thus a woman, he is less, . 

I hold, than man. 

Men, and women too, are seldom happily married. What prom¬ 
ised to be a heaven often turns out a near approach to the oppo¬ 
site institution, or condition. The cause of some of the 
trouble is clear and plain. Let this be made clear ; and for this 
particular view of this especial item, I am indebted to Mrs. E. 
Burr, of Conn, — a lady of vast experience, a keen observer, and 
the amount of whose brain might well shame thousands of the so- 
called great, who have reaped lustrous laurels, and grasped the 
keys of fame, upon less than half of her cerebral capital. I shall 
give her idea in my own words, and I think her statement not only 
true and valuable, but that her peculiar view is one of the most 
important pertaining to Love and its Hidden History. 

It is a well-known fact, that by the constant use of one organ we 
draw to it much more than its share of vitality. By the loss of sight 
the hearing and touch become substitutes for the eyes. The same fact 
is likewise true, in one sense, of other parts of the human economy, 
for all victims of youthful error succeed in displacing the pelvic ner¬ 
vous centres, or special seat of nervous sensation, from their normal 
localities to other and more external positions, the consequence of 
which, is that a chronic numbness, electric insulation, takes 
place, and finally the nerves of sensation become effectually para¬ 
lyzed to a greater or less extent. Of course, ruin and disappoint¬ 
ment, disease and despair, are the legitimate consequences that 
follow. Such victims are indeed pitiable. % 

The true and legitimate intent of what is here meant by the 
term actual marriage can only be realized by healthy souls in 
healthy bodies, inspired by healthy love, fitness, respect, tender¬ 
ness, and reciprocalness , all of which must conjoin ere the actual 
dream of bliss can pass into an experience. Under all other con¬ 
ditions it is sacrilege, counterfeit, fatal waste, and nervous exhaus¬ 
tion, and is actually but another form of self-pollution, rapidly 
depletive of magnetic and vital force to all concerned; and for 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


115 


special reasons, easily discernible, provocative of rapidly reached 
and quickly ended, and very imperfect satisfaction. Deep disap¬ 
pointment settles over the home ; the seeds of permanent unhappi¬ 
ness are sown, and take deep root, mutual hopes and longings are 
dashed to earth, crushed out, and one or both are often led to 
dangerous experiments with others, in the vain hope of actualizing 
the prophecy of bliss implanted by Heaven in both their consti¬ 
tutions. 

Scientifically, the cause of all this is, that by manipulation the 
nervous centres have been changed, and mechanical action and 
pressure have been substituted for chemical and magnetic agencies, 
which, under healthful conditions, result from the inter-commin¬ 
gling of the acid and alkaline principles involved, pertaining to 
common human nature, and quickened and intensified by the mutual 
mental and spiritual affections of the wedded twain, under which 
conditions satisfaction, health, and strength result, but otherwise 
nothing but disgust and horror can follow. Says Mrs. Burr, in a 
paper now before me : “The philosopher’s stone is found. Long 
have men sought to find the right road to happiness. While read¬ 
ing the appendix to that grand book, ‘After Death, or Disem¬ 
bodied Man,’ I was struck with the remarks concerning the sin 
against the Holy Ghost. A sin against woman is really against 
the universal motherhood. The subject is delicate, but people must 
learn if the race is to be perpetuated in health of body and wealth 
of mind.” And she says truly. 

When a man has lost blood, till he is almost gone, it is possi¬ 
ble to restore him by transfusing the blood of another into the 
sick man’s veins. This has been done often, but generally one sex 
has supplied blood to its opposite, in which case there has sprung 
up a strangely fervent love between the two, always, thus proving 
what I contend for, that love depends upon magnetic, electric, and 
chemical conditions, to an extent little dreamed of by either the peo¬ 
ple or their teachers. The same principle is seen in other forms of > 
transfusion. No white or Indian woman who first bears a child to 
a negro father can ever afterward give birth to a purely white or In¬ 
dian child, even though the father of the second child be of pure line¬ 
age ; for the reason that the essence of the first man has perpetuated 
itself in his child, and the transfusion of blood between the mother 
and her babe becomes perfect long before it is born ; and the impres- 


116 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


si on and chemical state of her body can never afterward be wholly 
changed. This is seen in the case of widows, whose babes fre¬ 
quently resemble the first husband far more than they do their own 
fathers. Realty, marriage is a 'chemical fusion in all cases, but not 
always magnetic or spiritual; hence, any woman who steps aside 
from her duty to her own husband, becomes charged with a 
foreign chemistry and magnetism that she can never get wholly rid 
of on earth ; and the love she bore her husband grows weaker 
from that moment, until it is wholly lost. Now, if a man allows 
himself to accept another woman’s chemistry, his innate love for 
his wife is sapped, coldness and carelessness are sure to follow, and 
just in proportion as he mingles himself with many, is his total 
inability to love even one truly ! This truth, fresh from God, can¬ 
not be too strongly impressed upon the human mind. Beware of 
the first false step! Resist the first temptation, and do not imperil 
a whole life of promise for a five minutes’ dearly bought pleasure. 
In true marriage the couple grow more and more like each other, 
and by marriage I do not mean a mere formal ceremony, but a 
union of souls, and wherever that exists the marriage is complete, 
with or without a ceremony, albeit, I deem it always proper to 
conform to the moral usages of society in that respect; but where 
two have only that rite to bind them, God pity them! I say, for 
it is often a lifelong imprisonment, productive of poison hell in¬ 
stead of healthy heaven. 

In the case of women, the great majority of American wives, 
— and my opportunities of knowing have been good, for my medical 
practice during twenty-seven years has been very extensive, and 
thousands of cases have come to my knowledge, —it is very rarely 
that they ever experience either the full measure of conjugal bliss, 
to which as wives they are entitled, or anything else than anguish, 
unutterable and loathly, or supreme indifference, both of which are 
fatal to wedded love. This may- result from different causes, the 
...effect of personal vice while at school, resulting in changing the 
seat of nervous power. Hence very few of them realty know, 
from experience, what marriage realty means. Very frequently 
wives’ disappointments, ay, in the majority of instances, result 
I repeat, from the morbidness of the husband(?), the result of 
youthful precocity and vice on his part, long years before. The 
fruit of such a marriage is bitterness indeed. He is no man, — no 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


117 


one is , who is selfish or morbid in the line indicated, and the quicker 
one or both of these victims resort to means capable of creating 
better magnetic and chemical states of body, the sooner will they 
realize what marriage and love really mean. When from any 
cause the seat of nervous sensation has been deadened or changed, 
married life becomes a chronic provocation ; the desires are in¬ 
tense, even terrible; there is a fearful love-hunger, but no as¬ 
suagement ; it is a daily, horrible, living death. In the true mar¬ 
riage of genuine love, there is ever an electric fusion between souls 
and bodies, productive of exquisite, social, mental, and moral joy ; 
for each absorbs from, and imparts to, the other, resulting in a moral 
and spiritual happiness, utterly impossible to be described. In 
such a case, the feminine exuvse and the prostatic fluid mingle, 
change their forms to that of an aeriform magnetism, which is 
mutually absorbed, and as this nerve aura is the very essence of 
both parties, and the fusion can only take place in perfect love, 
it follows that “ free love,” promiscuity, and 'personal vice are 
losing games; won’t pay, don’t pay, never can pay,—they are 
suicidal to the last degree. There is no act a human being can 
possibly commit, not even excepting robbery and murder, that so 
effectually demoralizes the entire being, as does the vice alluded 
to. The curse of God rests upon it, and its penalties are too 
dreadful to contemplate ; for no punishment bears a sting so sharp 
and poisonous as it does. It is God’s method of preventing the 
terrible deed. 

When couples really blend and fuse this nerve aura is the source, 
and the love which begets it is a citadel of strength, and joy, and 
power, and all things pure and good. But if lust alone obtains 
these fluids mix, but do not mingle; they remain, and they 
result in forming a thick, viscid, carcinomous coating, which rapidly 
poisons the wife, decomposes, and becomes insufferably terrible. 
Leucorrliea follows, the health is broken down, she becomes lonely, 
sick, queer, angular, wretched, and all earth and life one vast lazar- 
liouse and hell; and if such a wife finds herself likely to become 
a mother, she is often tempted to evade the issue by a crime; and 
there are hundreds of Avretches, male and female, in our towns and 
cities, who for five dollars a head will kill unborn children by the 
hundred, and grow rich upon it; and there are many so-called “ re¬ 
spectable ” papers in said cities or towns, which gladly announce 


118 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


the “ professors , ” and places where the dreadful crime is done ; and 
legislators permit it. Shame on them ! Now, abortion is rank 
murder, no matter who commits it! and I think hanging too good 
for the “ professors; ” and that a woman who does it is a fool and 
criminal, —for, just as sure as God lives, the consequences will cling 
to her for ages in the great hereafter. I believe “ prevention ” by 
drugs, washes, and all such means, very poisonous and pernicious. 
There is but one legitimate method by which wives can evade 
maternity, and that method is found in the element of time. Seed 
will not grow if the soil be not prepared for it. But I hold it 
wrong to resort to even this, for all human souls are a gain to the 
world and God. 

But what is an unloved wife to do? I reply, first, seek to gain 
ph} r sical health by legitimate means, and then apply 3'ourself to the 
not difficult task of winning 3 r our husband’s love. And to these 
latter I say the same. It would be an insult to the intelligence of 
either for me to describe the methods of doing this ; but I beg 3^ou 
to take notice that: — 

I. Love between the sexes is something more than a sentiment. 
While embodied it depends upon the magnetic congeniality of the 
parties. If there be a full and reciprocal play therein, then a state 
of happiness exists. If not, then not. If one party loses this 
magnetic attraction power, love dies. Married people can always 
be told from what are called lovers. The former look from , the 
latter to, each other. One part3 r has the jewel, and don’t care any¬ 
thing about it; the other hasn’t, and does. WI13’? Because they 
have lost magnetic power. To regain it, stop fretting, cease bor¬ 
rowing trouble, breathe deeply, bathe often, exercise much, and all 
the bod3 T , cultivate cheerfulness and health, eat, drink, sleep -well, 
— on hard bed, head to the north ; retire and rise early, and con¬ 
tinually place the mind on the idea of regaining magnetic force. 
This will bring it. Use it wisely. 

II. Will is feeble in most people. Cultivate it by thinking de¬ 
terminedly of one thing only at a time, to the total exclusion of 
everything else. It will grow. Then you can powerfully, holily, 
purely, use it to direct and impress the resistless magnetic power 
upon him you love, and whom you would retain and wear. Fail¬ 
ure is impossible ! The author of “ Ravalette,” who travelled in 
Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey, in 1861 - 62 , made marriage and 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


119 


% 

its mysteries a special study, and succeeded in gaining the great 
Oriental Secret, which, briefly is this — (and here let me say, 
that until now this has never been given to the American people, 
but a red powder has been foisted on them by certain ones, who 
claim it to be the real secret, but w r hich is an imposition; in 
other words a compound of starch, carmine, and violet powder, 
value, three cents, sold at one dollar; besides, the name under 
which it is sold is a false one, no such secret as the one adver¬ 
tised existing at all) — the true secret, based on natural law, and 
operating by principles well-known and understood among civil¬ 
ized people, is as follows : — 

, The Oriental wife, when she is perfectly assured that she cannot 
safely bear more children, shrinks with unutterable horror from 
the idea of murdering the fruit of her womb — as all true women 
ever do; but so times her love season as to avoid the chances; or, 
if she cannot always do that, merely wills — but strongly—at the 
time, that a certain event or result shall not occur, and that will- 
effort contracts the proper muscles of the principal organ involved ; 
effectually closing the door to danger and to risk. It is indeed very 
seldom that an Eastern woman resorts to that sinless method, and 
then only when age, disease, or malformations render it impera¬ 
tive. On the contrary, offspring are rightly considered as special 
blessings from the Supreme God ; hence the first lessons a bride 
receives from her mother are those that favor such a result. She 
is told to wholly, fully, freely, prayerfully abandon her entire fac¬ 
ulties and being to the one grand end of woman-life, — the sacred 
mission of the wifely mother. Hence it happens that the Oriental 
wife is always pure : there are not a hundred adulteresses or child- 
killers in all Islam, with its 200,000,000 votaries ! There is not as 
many of these fearful crimes committed among all the Moslems, 
in ten years, as disgraces Boston, New York, or Philadelphia 
every month w r e live. The Oriental wife, with all her glowing 
soul, wills — save in very rare instances — to be fruitful, as all 
women should ; and becomes so. There are rare cases in which a 
wife cannot, without imperilling her life, undergo the ordeal of 
maternity, and then, and then only , the timely exercise of the will 
alone forestalls death, prevents crime, and obviates all suffering. 

III. Love is magnetic, subject to magnetic law, and is also a force, 
capable, as all know, of exerting strange effects upon bodies. This 



120 LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN falSTORY. 

4 

magnetic, ethereal love-element can be projected upon, and made 
to operate on, any living being, as well as upon ourselves. Di¬ 
rect the attention toward the cause of anxiety, — a person (or 
self) sick in mind, morals or body, — and strongly desire, wish, 
will, the love-cure to be effective ; in a few trials success will fol¬ 
low, to the entire assuagement of the difficulty. It is the moth¬ 
er’s power over her child, exerted on a wider scale. 

IV. Magnetic Love-power is of little use unless exercised. 
It and the Will, when properly cultured, is one of the most power¬ 
ful instrumentalities for good, on earth. But wives and husbands 
neglect it and suffer. They find their partners growing cool, and 
instead of checking it they fly off, create a fuss, grow sullen, and 
make matters a great deal worse, when a timely resort to the great 
magnetic law would speedily correct all the trouble, which, in mar¬ 
ried life, often originates in passional excess, and consequent sa¬ 
tiety and disgust, — an unpalatable truth, but true , nevertheless. 
And here let me further say, that obedience to the laws of soap 
and water, sunshine and health, will ever and always prevent that 
same satiety and disgust, with all the subtended horrors thence 
arising. If a wife finds her husband growing cool, let her attend 
to her dress, manner ; smiles instead of frowns ; sugar, not salt; 
honey, not vinegar ; and place her will steadily, strongly, persist¬ 
ently, upon him, at the same time sending forth her woman’s love, 
sympathy', and magnetic force of magnetic love. The man don't, 
live who can resist it! His love will return just as surely as that 
heaven exists. But she cannot work this magic charm in anger, 
jealousy', or indifference. Let her remember this, for it is the 
grand Oriental secret of fascination, was learned from the birds, 
and has worked miracles in human life. The same principles ob¬ 
tain among unwedded lovers! 

V. Love-Starvation ! Think of it! A soul dying by inches 
for human sympathy, human love! It is dreadful, and yet thou- 
sands there are who suffer it all the while, and needlessly , for the 
certain cause of love-starvation is either utter selfishness on the 
part of the starved, repellant angularities, or lack of opportunity'. 
True, it sometimes results from solitary vice, and in that case can 
only be remedied by a total abandonment of the habit, and re¬ 
building the health by due attention to diet, exercise, and fresh 
air, aided perhaps, with a little medicine, or some equally^ power- 


LOVE AND rife HIDDEN HISTORY. 121 

* 

ful tonic invigor ant every morning and evening for a few months; 
but in cases of passional and love-starvation not thus induced, the 
only cure is to be found in firmly resisting the terrible temptation 
to guilt and suicide, and a strong will and attractive daily exercise. 
The influence ivill go forth, and, although this idea may be laughed 
at by those ignorant of the soul and its laws, will bring to the 
soul the love it wants and sighs for. And yet it necessitates that 
you love , be lovely , lovable , and loving. My limits preclude the 
amplification of this subject. I am induced to thus notify people, 
because the vast majority of diseases spring from causes that ex¬ 
perience has most abundantly and triumphantly demonstrated can 
be removed. Many people of both sexes often experience a terri¬ 
ble attraction toward another, that resembles, but is not love. On 
the contrary, it is a fearful, monstrous passion, and they almost 
vainly struggle to escape it. Such persons are vampyrized, and 
a vampyre is a person born love-hungry , who have none them¬ 
selves, who are empty of it, but who fascinate and literally suck 
others dry who do have love in their natures. Detect it thus : the 
vampyre is selfish, is never content but in handling, fondling its 
object, which process leaves the victim utterly exhausted, and 
they don’t know why. Break off at once. Baffle it by steady 
refusal, allow not even hands to touch, and remember that the 
vampyre seeks to prolong his or her own existence, life, and 
pleasure, at the expense of your own. Women when thus assailed 
should treat the assailant with perfect coldness and horror. Thus 
the}" can baffle this pestiferous thing, — which is more common than 
people even suspect; in fact, an every-day affair. Many a man 
and wife have parted, many still live unhappily together, some 
aware, but many unconscious, that the prime cause of all their 
bickerings and discontent is vampyrism on the part of one or the 
other. It causes fretfulness, moodiness, irritability ; a feeling of 
repugnance arises toward the one who should be most dear; and 
eventually positive dislike takes the place of that tender affection 
which should ever grow more and more endearing between those 
who have given themselves to each other. This dislike becomes 
in man}" cases so strong that the parties cannot endure each 
other’s presence; and separation becomes inevitable, neither per¬ 
haps conscious of the true cause. This is sometimes owing to an 
inferior development of amativeness, sometimes to debility, lack 


122 LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 

of vitality, the consequence of a feeble or shattered nervous sys¬ 
tem ; and in either case the cure is to be found in less frequent 
contact, separate rooms, health, and mutual endeavor to correct 
the fault. 

That a man or woman’s real character is written in unmistaka¬ 
ble characters, not only upon the entire person and features, but 
upon every external organ also, is a truth so thoroughly estab¬ 
lished as not to be denied. The features may be shrouded, but 
the hand, lips, nose, and brow, can never be. I therefore la}' 
down these twenty-two rules for determining character, by inter¬ 
preting the knots, lines, furrows, and shape of various hands, so 
that he or she who carefully studies them, as the}? - should be, need 
not be deceived in the actual and hidden character of any human 
being, for the laws and rules here laid down are mathematically 
correct, and as certain as is death itself. No matter what a party 
may pass for, or pretends to be, his or her hand will tell the true story 
with unerring certainty, that is, according to very high French 
scientific authority, whose correctness of course I cannot positively 
vouch for : —• 

A hand something long, and the fingers thick, denote the person 
to be of a phlegmatic complexion, idle, slothful, but modest. 

If the palm of the hand be long, and the fingers well-propor¬ 
tioned, and not soft, but rather hard, it denotes the person to be 
ingenious, but changeable, and given to theft and vice. 

If the hand be hollow, solid, and well-knit in the joints, it pre¬ 
dicts long life ; but if overthwarted, it then denotes short life. 

He whose hand is according to the quantity of his body, 
and the fingers too short, and thick, and fat at the ends, will be a 
thief, a lyer-in-wait, and addicted to all manner of evil. 

When the palm of the hand is longer than the due proportion 
requires, and the fingers more thick, by how much they are the 
more short, it signifies that the man is proud, idle, negligent, and 
so much the more by how much the hand is more brawny. 

Great and long hands betoken a great spirit, liberality, good 
conditions, craftiness; but the person will be a good counsellor, 
and faithful to his friends. 

Observe the finger of Mercury, — that is the little finger ; if the 
end of it exceed the joint of the ring finger, such a man will rule 
his own house, and his wife will be pleasing and obedient to him, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


123 


but if it be short, and reach not the joint, he will have a shrew, 
and she will “ wear the breeches.” 

Broad nails show the person to be bashful, fearful, but of gentle 
nature. 

When there is a certain white mark at the extremity of them, it 
shows that the person has more honesty than subtlety, and that his 
worldly substance will be impaired through negligence. 

White nails, and long, denote much sickness and infirmity, es¬ 
pecially fevers ; and indication of the strength and deceit by 
women. 

If upon the white anything appears at the extremity that is pale, 
it denotes, short life by sudden death, and the person given to 
melancholy. 

When there appears a certain mixed redness of divers colors at 
the beginning of the nails, it shows the person to be very choleric 
and very quarrelsome. 

When the extremity is black, it is a sign of husbandry. 

Narrow nails denote the person to be inclined to mischief, and 
to do injury to his neighbors. 

Long nails show the person to be good-natured, but distrusted, 
and loves reconciliation rather than differences. 

Oblique nails signify deceit and want of courage. 

Little round nails denote obstinate anger and hatred. 

If they be crooked at the extremity, they show pride and 
fierceness. 

Round nails show a choleric person, yet soon reconciled, honest, 
a lover of secret sciences. 

Fleshy nails denote the person to be mild in temper but lazy. 

Pale and black nails show the person to be very deceitful to his 
neighbor and subject to many diseases. 

Red and marked nails signify a choleric and martial nature, 
given to cruelty ; and so many little marks as there are, they speak 
so many evil desires. 

A word on newness. Every little while the painful details of 
some “ shocking domestic tragedy” are given to the public in the 
columns of the daily press. On investigation, it uniformly turns 
out that the u tragedy ” was merely the culmination or explosion 
of a long train of “ domestic combustibles,” which one party or the 
other, and sometimes both, had been assiduously laying for months, 





124 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


or perhaps for years. The husband has female acquaintances whom 
the wife does not “ approve; ” the wife has masculine attendants 
on whom the husband frowns ; the offending party neglects the 
home-circle and frequents the theatres with the tabooed parties; 
late suppers at restaurants ; habits of indulging in strong drink ; 
mysterious absences and “ excursions ; ” and finally a revolver, if 
the offender be the wife, or a lawyer, if the husband be the guilty 
one, brings the matter to a crisis; and exposure, accompanied by 
death or disgrace, follows, and the curtain drops upon the forbid¬ 
ding scene. The moral of all this : Stick to your homes and your 
families. “ A house divided against itself cannot stand.” 

It is plain that all this results from utter selfishness in either 
party, from the fact that neither party has real confidence in the 
other ; and the cure for it is the assiduous cultivation, not of same¬ 
ness, but of NEWNESS. 

VI. The grand power of inner perception is most easily at¬ 
tained by clearly defining in your own mind what you want to know, 
and then powerful^ concentrating the attention and will upon 
knowing it, and the answers will flow into the mind, or it will per¬ 
ceive what it wants to. 

VII. Any mother, can, if she will, produce offspring that shall 
be superior to either parent, by avoiding all disagreeables of what¬ 
ever kind or nature. By believing she shall and will produce a 
superior specimen of the race, and by firmly resisting discontent, 
anger, jealousy, hatred, and all evil, dwelling only on that which 
is true, beautiful and good. 

VIII. Women suffering from affectional perversions, resulting 
in the trains of evil known as “ Female Complaints,” have a pos¬ 
itive means of rejuvenation in the will, in the cultivation of the 
purer attributes of their nature ; observance of the law of soap and 
water, and a firm determination to be no longer slaves to druo-s, 
anger, selfishness, the doctors, envy, or anything else calculated 
to unbalance them. Thus mentally they can heal themselves, tone 
their bodies, and gain new life, energy, and the power that begets 
power in return. 

IX. Married Men’s lives will be happy and pleasant when they 
learn : 1. That a woman is a woman — not a softer sort of man. 

2. That wives appreciate forbearance. 3. That occasionally a 
woman’s organization becomes so deranged that she needs sym- 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


125 


pathy, love, tenderness, and great patience on his part, for she can 
not help her vagaries. Bread thus thrown upon the waters will 
return a harvest of love ere many days. 4. A wife is a truer 
friend, even if homely, than the most beautiful outsider that ever 
lived. 5. Take your wife into your counsels; the place of 
amusement; walk, talk, and be pleasant with her. Attentions pay 
large interest. 6. Never bring all your troubles home to saddle 
them on her; and 7, and last, Study your wife, and adapt your¬ 
self to her ; let her really be your other half; for, lo ! ye twain are 
one flesh. No matter what mothers-in-law, or any relation, may 
say or do. Remember that ye twain are *one, and “ For this cause 
shall a man leave father and mother and cleave ( only ) to his 
wife.” 

Persons who desire to correspond with the author, on any of the 
points herein mooted, can address “Author of Love and its Hid¬ 
den History,” care Wm. White & Co., Boston, Mass. 

*********** 

The Roscicrucian brotherhood hold certain dogmas to be true, 
which are not believed by all wty> live within the pale of the Christian 
world, and are not fairly undei\stood by even the most advanced 
thinkers and philosophers. Arhpng these dogmas is that of the 
absolute existence of a Deit} r , and that of fate, destiny, and pre¬ 
ordination, not in the sense of fixedness, but in the sense of in¬ 
creasing and vanishing forces of organization as played upon by 
the myriad streams of influences whereto all beings are subjected. 
The folly of free will ought to be exploded, because it is untrue. No 
man can by any possibility be free so long as he is enveloped by 
influence-bearing atmospheres, whether these b’e oxygenic, carbon¬ 
ic, electric, chemical, social, actinic, domestic, climatic, magnetic, 
odic, ethereal, religious, refined, coarse, amatory, political, or any 
other; for all these tend to swerve him more or less, to warp his 
judgment, and control his thought, feeling, and action, and so 
long as this indisputable fact obtains, he is not one whit more free 
in the absolute sense than an apple on the tree is free, which it can¬ 
not be so long as the law of acids, sweets, gravity, constitutes 
the elements of apple law. But, unlike the fruit, man lives within 
the circle of vanishing quantities and accreting forces. 

For instance, a man may be tempted to the very verge of doing 
a mean act toward any one, and while yielding mentally before the 




126 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


covert deed, may reach forth his hand and take a drink of brandy, 
which drink begets an additional inflammation: his virtue is a van¬ 
ishing quantity straightway, and his persistence, amatory intensity, 
is an accreting force, > and he goes to u the devil as straight as a 
string,” totally without reference to free-will, moral law, heaven, 
hell, or Mrs. Grundy. Why? Because;the coarser chemistry of 
the body has induced action in the finer chemistry of spirit, and 
these two win immediate victories over the soul — the fight being 
two against one. 

Now, will the casuists please weigh me out the exact heft of that 
man’s free-will and guil • When you want to catch a woman, 
bait the hook with diamonds — large — and she is Very apt to 
bite ! And when you you want to catch a man, bait with a pretty 
woman, and you will go home with more game than hunter ever 
yet returned with. ‘Good-morning, free-will! 


Free-will is all a fleeting show 
To amuse us in life’s span. 

Man wants but woman here below. 
And woman wants but man. 


“ What’ll you bet that isn’t true?” said a gentlemen at my side, 
— a great poet, and a natural one, — as I penned the lines. 

I admitted its truth, and prosily asked, “ Why? ” 

Said he, “ You’re a fool. God in matter and nature, as you know 
it, is but the spirit of life, growth, increase, increment; that and 
that only is his mode in this department of what is, and the most 
of wliat is lays beyond the reach of matter-environed intellect, and 
all it is good for is to grow. All matter is good, for it is to afford 
a theatre of forces, and all man has to do below is to increase 
in all directions, multiply all his powers and replenish the earth, not 
only with rightly begotten and born young ones, — a vast improve¬ 
ment on their parents, — but with all possible improving agencies.” 

God does not trouble himself about whether Molly’s child was 
born before being commissioned properly by the Rev. Dr. Tenthly 
in a surplice, or after ; but whether the child can eat his allowance 
and turn it into good quantity and quality of clear brain. He does 
not care whether John marries Sally, but that each shall marry some 
body and soul; for the earth, and air, and sunshine, and matter were 
all specially destined as nurseries of the incarnate God, by the 



LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTOTIY. 


127 


viewless chief of all existence ; and as it happens that every parti¬ 
cle and atom has life, and force, and power, and destiny, in exact 
ratio with the subtlety and fineness of itself, it follows that any 
aggregation thereof must also have a determinate destiny by rea¬ 
son of the size, shape, fineness, etc., of the constituent atoms, and 
so Joe and Bill, as chemical existences, act just as their organiza¬ 
tions vote they shall, acting in concert with the tremendous con¬ 
course of eternal forces that forever play upon them in myriad 
wa} r s, alternately changing the vanishing and accreting quantities 
and tendencies. God to-day, devil yesterday, a mixture of both 
to-morrow, resulting in crystallizing all that is good and purging 
away the bad, whether physical, mental, or moral, for as God is 
the spirit of push, he pushes all to the better ends, and as speedily 
as possible gets us out of the cellars of life into its drawing-rooms 
and parlors. 

Unquestionably, our organizations determine the grooves we 
move in, and no thought, act, or deed, but is the only possible re¬ 
sult of the combined gale of influences that blows upon us from the 
cradle to the grave. We hold that there are two auras or effluen¬ 
ces born with us, the nature of which depends upon the preponder¬ 
ance of good or evil that has obtained all along the back line of 
ancestry at the front of which we individually stand. If the good 
or smooth prevail, so it will be with us on the troublesome journey 
called life ; and conversely, if ill prevail. 

No judge or jury that ever tried a victim for his liberty or life, 
was or is competent to tell how far a man is responsible for any 
given deed ; for he may have done it as a sort of blister-proxy, — 
slumbering yet gathering force for long periods, and breaking out 
in any given moment of our lives, when chemical or other states 
were exactly right for that sort of development; hence present 
prison codes are a humbug, law courts a solemn farce, justice a 
tragedy, the gallows an infamous ulcer on the body politic, a blun¬ 
der ; and this partly because we beget bodies, but God makes 
souls, and if by folly we build bad tenements, what wonder that 
the tenants often grow irksome, and raise hell where heaven ought 
to reign ? 

We are not free-willites ; we are powerless to correct the organic 
faults of ourselves, but can by loving living do much toward a 
better state of things for our posterity. 




128 


LOYE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


When a man begins to think, then there is hope of that man; 
but whoever can, and will not, think, proves himself a bigot and 
an ass! 

Virtue don’t consist in a membrane ! Some people say it does, 
but some people are fools. It is soul that is virtuous, if virtue 
there be, and not a cartilage ! 

The marriage relation is, as times go, a very uncertain institution ; 
'mainly because each party to it insists upon moving socially, 
psychically, and in every other wa} r , in separate spheres. And the 
most knowing men and women, Rosicrucians included, are gener¬ 
ally stone blind in that direction, while wide awake to every other 
beneath the sun ; but practically the thing is reversed, and we have 
them in patches all over the “ garden of humanity.” Of late many 
attempts have been made to account for this evil and to supply an 
appropriate remedy. As a general thing the female army of mar¬ 
riage protestors lay all the blame of uncongeniality, etc., etc., to the 
male side of the house, and we are surfeited with abundant talk 
about “ man’s animal passions,” and all that sort of thing. The 
human male is bad, worse, and worst, while the other side is good, 
better, and best, — which is false and nonsense ; for as many males 
writhe beneath this galling yoke as females ; and in the final adjust¬ 
ment of the whole matter it w T ill be found that the trouble does 
not always originate in man’s animality. 

And I here take occasion to defend my sex from that atrocious 
charge, and to affirm that, 1, we males are, taken on an average 
quite as good as the other side of the house, and are just as capa¬ 
ble of knowing when we are well treated as they are. 

2. Nor does it originate in non-affinity, for people very seldom 
enter that relation unless there be a most decided affinity between 
them. 

3. Nor does the trouble spring from the supposed fact that some¬ 
where in heaven or earth or elsewhere there is one particular man 
cut out to exactly suit one particular woman, for that stuff is ex¬ 
ploded — was disproved long ago. Any living human being can 
find thousands of totally dissimilar affinities, in every land beneath 
the sky, with whom he could live in perfect accord till a certain 
fabled' place was covered with ice a league thick. “ Eternal 
affinity ” is infernal fol de rol. Once I spent some weeks beneath 
the roof of one of the worst women God or nature ever created, a 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


129 


perfect female Lucifer, sharp as vinegar, crooked as a worm, and 
meaner than “ git; ” yet the woman had a husband to whom she 
is sweeter than strained honey, and she to him is goddess; such 
love as exists between termagant shrew and this invalid husband 
scarce ever is seen, and yet there is not the slightest vestige of 
affinity between the twain. How, then, is this happy union to be 
accounted for? Wait, presently we shall inquire and perhaps see. 
Let us look at the female side of the business first, and see if it is 
true, as the 876th Rosicrueian canon declares, that a husband is 
ever just what a wife makes him. Some may doubt this, but I be¬ 
lieve it most astonishingly true. 

Marriage is a tree whose fruits are ever bitter unless constantly 
watered with respect, cultured with tenderness, and nursed with 
attention, for happiness is either a vanishing or accreting quantity. 
Now how many wives in a thousand ever practically realize that 
the husband sustains a relation close by the walls of their lives — 
that he wishes the closest possible union. Very few wives take 
the same pains to please “ onty my husband” that they do stran¬ 
gers, acquaintances, and a host of outsiders, — for all of whom they 
put on the very best airs, give them the tit-bits at table, wash, per¬ 
fume, and dress themselves “fit to kill, ” and come it strong in a 
hundred ways, all of which they are oblivious to so far as hubby is 
concerned. Take their tale for it, and all the wives are angels. 
Madame puts her best foot foremost, and honey is all the go, but 
after that, she seems to think her part well done if she ministers at 
meals and suffers “ animality.” Now be it known that no man 
lives who will be contented with the mere physical part of the con¬ 
tract. Women doubt it, but it is a fact we “animal monsters” 
actually have hearts, and love sweetness, — saccharine, domestic, 
aesthetic, and magnetic ; and if the lovely creatures would take half 
the pains to keep and increase our love, by commanding our respect, 
attention, afcd tenderness, there would be far fewer divorce suits 
and smaller editions of Bedlam let loose; for it happens that when 
men don’t get these things at home, a streak of human nature 
prompts a search elsewhere. 

Behold the foundation whereon saloons, brothels, rum-drinking, 
tobacco-using, crime from badly fashioned children, divorce courts, 
elopements, desertions, murder, and the gallows are builded ! 

A slovenly wife drives a man mad. A cold, unthinking com- 
9 


130 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


panion to marital usages begets the crime against nature (which it 
always is without mutuality ) in three forms, the result of which is 
the man gets warped, sour, falls into a state of chronic “ cussed¬ 
ness,” feels “ damn ” if he don’t say it, and falls an easy prey to the 
first pair of rosy lips that silently invite him to come and taste them. 

Husbands don’t relish sufferance, they want union — united 
(wife and husband) stand ; divided they fall, and when either breaks 
tl|g bond and enters new ones, the broom is sure to sweep clean 
for a while, but in nine cases in ten it’s out of the frying-pan into 
the fire plump and square, and then follows a “ Who’d a ’ thought it ? ” 
and u How are you, affinities ? ” No, no, marriage is something more 
than the most of women seem to think, and as the most potent 
thing in being is a woman’s smile, 1 prescribe that for cases of 
inflammation of wedlock and marriage ague. 

Smiles attract; fault-finding and heedlesness repel. 

We are told that woman caused the fall of man ; if so, she only 
has power to raise him. 

Passionalism is the body of conjugal love, principle is its soul. 
Wives, study your husbands. 

Husbands, a word to you. Don’t you know that as a general 
thing you are not fit for a good woman’s husbandage? Why? Be¬ 
cause you are so apt to be immersed in the things of life outside, as 
to neglect the world at home ; which is mean on your part; for a wom¬ 
an is something more than a handy thing to have around the house. 

Her love is never physical, and her soul needs cuddling, brood¬ 
ing, genuine loving, not too often accompanied by the lurid fire 
begotten of thick necks, and food of flesh and flame. 

She is a triplicate compound of flesh, spirit, soul; and no woman 
ever yet lived who did not more highly value the love of the spirit 
and soul, far more than that whose sphere lies within the domain 
of nervous sense ; and yet from this last undoubtedly spring many 
of the purest and sweetest earthly joys. She requires constant 
respect, attention, tenderness, and she demands homage in a thou¬ 
sand little things, which husbands seem totally oblivious of three 
months after marriage. All women dearly appreciate trifling 
kindnesses and attentions. 

Boorishness distresses her, and coldness kills her outright; 
while forced compliance withers the very roots of love, and turns 
her celestial honey to the gall of hell-fire. 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


' 131 


Few men learn how to treat women till after forty years of age 
mainly because they are badly compounded ; but they can by per¬ 
sistent efforts make amends. Attention to home and for home 
begets chemical changes that soon bring about better fusion of 
souls. 

Most unhappy marriages owe much of their bitter fruits to too 
great physical intimacy and the consequent magnetic exhaustion ;* 
the cure for which is to be found in separate couches till Ae 
balance is restored. Proof: how dear John and Mary are to each 
other for a week after his return from a long absence ! But when 
the bodies are mutually filled with the same kind of magnetism 
they instantly cease to attract and begin to repel; hence never let, 
such be the case, and marriage in its other aspect will bp^ugary 
all along the valle} r . Again : there is no agency equhl to family 
wash-ups,— weekly at the altar ofthe bath-god, where the soap priest 
offers up his sacrifice to the lord of magnetic purity. No one can 
be virtuous in soiled linen, nor wholly bad in the mere chemistry 
of life! 

True. But chemistry lies at the bottom of existence. Large 
livers beget an alkaline condition, a generative tendency, and 
it boils over in “ prayer-meetings ” and “ glory to the Lamb” — not 
pure worship of God, but a magnetic furore that exhausts itself in 
physico-emotional excitement, as bereft of true fervor as pol¬ 
ished steel is of mildew. Large spleens beget acid states of body, 
and we have lemoncholy religion as a result. It is cold, — cold seeks 
its opposite, heat. And therefore such people are happier when 
warming themselves at hell-fire, and going in for strong excite¬ 
ment. “But marriage woes spring from mental differences. She 
is ignorant, he is knowing,” and all that sort of objections are set 
forth. Why didn’t $rou look out for that before? But it is not a 
good plea. Peopl e don’t marry for the sake of brains, but for souls 
and bodies. The world of feeling is vaster than the world of 
thought. It is less tiresome and more congenial. Love never 
reasons, and when it is attempted to gauge it by line and plummet, 
rule and square, good-by love, — it’s up and away. Love belongs 
to the domain of emotion ; intellect to the marble ice regions of 
mathematics. Love never venerates the thought, but adores the 
thinker, it worships not the act, but the power behind it; intellect 
never begets happiness, emotion always does. Read a geometrical 



132 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


thesis to a consumptive for physic, administer fluxions to a woman 
in love, give a dose of Euclid to the man that’s just left his wife. 
“ Bah ! ” one year of love, even “ ignorant” love, is worth all the 
“ intellect” this side of Jupiter in its effect upon the soul and des¬ 
tiny of man or woman. Intellect was given as a guide to life. 
Love is life itself, and we feel ten times happier at a concert, ball, 
opera, “ love feast,” or “ prayer-meeting,” than while listening to 
the grandest intellectual demonstrations this side of Orion. We 
will probe the matter deeper by and by; meantime consider me an 
advocate of the rights of women, and those of men likewise. 

The Street-Walker. — Of all God’s creation the most pitiful 
v <9biect. 

O N 

Of aW God’s creation the most sorry and most sacred object. 

Of all beffrgs made in the divine likeness, given a sense of im¬ 
mortality, an eye for the stars of midnight and the sun at noon, 
an ear for the murm ur of the spring, and the deep cry of the mighty 
sea, rocked babe of the Great Mother, given a voice for the utter¬ 
ance of the things of t?be heart, — the one only whose eyes are 
never turned to heaven,\whose ears are sealed to the spheral 
sounds, whose voice, untunecd? rattles over a dry bed. 

Of all a little lower than the\ angels, the one only that wants the 
death of any brute. The only dine — our Father help her ! — that 
would have no flowers pointing with fragrance to her grave, no 
stone to stay the stranger’s heel frcftm trampling down her dust. 
Only to lie quietly, never to wake whe n this is over. 

The street-walker haunts all the place' s of men. The city, with 
its walls so high that they veil the^ face of ■ the sun, with 
stones that never cry out, and mingled sounds that drown the still 
small voice, is her only home. She has a^ memory of another 
scene, now and then. While it is light, and she" lurks in her covert, 
shrinking from the searching eye of day, it sometimes crosses her 
mind, — a still and peaceful land,— cape, fields,Tb u rook;V white 
church, a cottage with the vines about it, and there, under . 

trees before the door, with the sunset touching his thin face with 
glory, and the pleasant air blowing through his white hair, an old 
man fondling a child upon his knee, a child whose large eyes are 
turned trustful and truthful into liis,, and whose golden tresses 

embrace his neck. But she curses this vision, and drowns it with 

fire! . * 

* , * 

• . • . # 

\ # 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


133 


If the street-walker ventures out into the brilliant tide of happy 
and hopeful life that rises and falls in the favorite promenade, 
she is followed by black and angry glances. As if her breath were 
poison, as if her touch were certain taint, fine ladies shrink away 
at her approach, wives and mothers blush with indignation as they 
see her, and holy men rebuke her with stern contemplation. 
Through all her disguises, —be her veil as thick and impenetrable 
as that which hides her destiny, be her garments those of deepest 
contrition and most suppliant sadness, —bet your life the fellows 
know her ! The gentlemen so proud and handsome, picking petted 
teeth, or caressing beautiful mustaches at the hotel fronts, or 
lounging with large eyes and graceful canes over the pave, ex¬ 
change brief but perfectly understood glances as she goes by, 
wearily, perhaps ; and if none of their up-town friends are in sight 
(of which they are careful first to assure themselves), bestow 
upon her a few sly familiarities, of which they have an ample 
vocabulary. 

When it is dark! Who does not know that figure, so laboriously 
light, of such ghastly gayety, decked with the sacrificial tokens, 
flowers, and jewels — a bloom in her cheek, but not the bloom of 
health and innocence ; a light in her eye, but not the light of hope, 

— flashing by there under the gas? Now she walks erect and 
bold. Now she laughs a sharp and furious laugh. Now her voice 
strikes a dismal pain to the heart still beautiful in purity, still 
tender in mercy. Now society shuts its eyes and its doors, and 
prays to the God of the outcast for the street-walker out in the 

night. 

Gear friends, no. Gentlemen in front of the hotels, no. Caie- 
ful shepherds, ladies whose necks are so lovely and laces so light, 
mothers, that some of us remember, sisters, that some of us love, 

— no. 

A descent is just made upon them by a posse of the mayor’s 
police, the same mayor, dear friends, who, when a great many 
complaints are preferred at his office, by sewing girls and other 
operatives, who allege that their employers cheat them out of their 
wages, observes that “he can do nothing for them; and the 
newspapers tell all about it in a story which it is a stirring thing 
for respectable citizens to <|ance over at breakfast. The reporter 
shows up the “ vile creatures” in all their monstrous rapacity, and 


134 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


follows them to the station-house in the gentle clutch of Captain 
Snatchem’s posse with virtuous rejoicing. 

The street-walker, although spurned by all good people, and 
driven out, branded with shame, from all pure circles ; although 
taken up not tenderly by his Honor’s police ; although put out to die 
like a worn beast, when her laugh gets hollow and her eye dull, 
seldom takes any other revenge than an over-dose of laudanum, or 
a plunge, that only the droning watchman and the creatures of the 
midnight hear, into the black stream. 

Indeed, it is said that to the very destroyer of her peace and 
happiness — him who turned her destiny out of the light into the 
eternal shadows — she is often true to the last, following him with 
benedictions, and breathing his name last of all. 

Who, then, shall dare deny these poor ones the dole of human 
charity ? Who, when all is told, dare take upon him or herself 
the inhuman task of casting the first stone ? God forbid that I 
should do it! The “ Liberal Christian ” very truly says : — 

“ It is not in the facility with which people get divorced, but in 
the facility with which they get married, that the mischief inheres. 
It is not the unmarrying — the marrying without proper considera¬ 
tion, marrying from wrong motives, with false views and unfound¬ 
ed expectations, marrying without knowing who or what — that 
causes all the disturbance. And there is altogether too much of 
such marrying. When man and woman marry all over and clean 
"‘.through, every faculty and sentiment of each finding its comple¬ 
ment and counterpart in the other, separation is impossible. But 
when they are only half married,— when only a third part of them 
is married, — when they are married only in their instincts, or their 
imaginations, or their fortunes, — the unmarried part of both is very 
apt to get uneasy, and they find a Bedlam where they look for 
elysium.” 

Speaking of the incompatibilities of personal similarities, a 
writer of keen observation, and with time enough on his hands to 
use it in the waysides of life, sa} r s that wherever two natures have 
a great deal in common, the conditions of a first-rate quarrel are 
furnished ready-made. Relations are very apt to hate each other, just 
because they are too much alike. It is so frightful to be in an at¬ 
mosphere of family idiosyncrasies; to ^ee all the hereditary un¬ 
comeliness or infirmity of body, all the defects of speech, all the 



LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


135 


failings of temper, intensified by concentration, so that every fault 
of our own finds itself multiplied by reflection, like our images in 
a saloon lined with mirrors, and we are yet to learn that the 
heavens are a point from the pen of God’s perfection; the world 
is a bud from the bower of his beauty; the sun is a spark from the 
light of his wisdom, and the sky is a bubble on the sea of his 
power. His beauty is free from the spot of sin, hidden in the 
thick vale of darkness; he made mirrors from the atoms of the 
world, and threw a reflection from his face on every atom. 

Place woman among flowers, foster her as a tender plant, and 
she is a thing of fancy, waywardness, and sometimes folly, — 
annoyed by a dewdrop, fretted by the touch of a butterfly’s wing ? 
and ready to faint at the rustle of a beetle ; the zephyrs are too 
rough, the showers too heavy, and she -is overpowered by the per¬ 
fume of a rosebud. But let real calamit}^ come, rouse her affec¬ 
tions, enkindle the fires of her heart, and mark her then ; how her 
heart strengthens itself, how strong is her purpose ! Place her in 
the heat of battle— give her a child, a bird, anything she loves 
or pities, to protect—and see her in a relative instance, raising 
her white arms as a shield, as her own blood crimsons her upturned 
forehead, praying for life to protect the helpless. 

Transplant her in dark places of the earth, awaken her ener¬ 
gies to action, and her breath becomes a healing, her pres¬ 
ence a blessing. She disputes, inch by inch, the stride of the 
stalking pestilence, when man, the strong and brave, shrinks away* 
pale and affrighted. Misfortune haunts her not; She wears away 
a life of silent endurance, and goes forward with less timidity than 
to her bridal. In prosperity she is a bud full of odors, waiting but 
for the winds of adversity to scatter them abroad, — pure gold, 
valuable, but untried in the furnace. In short, woman is a miracle, 
a mystery, the centre from which radiates-the great charm of 
existence. 

All I have said of physical love has been uttered from the 
fulness of an honest heart, believing what I say. 

Let us open up another page of this love-volume, and demon¬ 
strate its substantiality, its absolute physical nature. It is proved 
to be material, for reasons I have already stated; and, 1, in the 
third list of reasons: Because no men or women were ever yet 
jealous because their legal partner loved some one else with a 




136 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


« divine,” a “ spiritual,” or “ angelic ” love. Why ? Because the 
common sense of all mankind affirms that the sentiment of admi¬ 
ration, the transcendentalisms “ love,” is a mere sentiment; but 
that the outflow of the love of the body entailed a positive loss, 
and was, and is, and ever will be, productive of positive injury. 
The universal human instinct of this fact lies at the bottom of 
jealousy. If love is only.a mental state, why do men, even “ phi¬ 
losophers,” take physical vengeance on the despoilers of love’s 
treasure-house ? 

2. Cases have occurred wherein a patient has been so ill as to 
require a fresh supply of blood. This blood has been transfused 
from the veins of one person to those of the other,—generally 
from a man to a woman ; and there never yet occurred a case of 
this kind but that a deathless attachment sprung up between the 
parties. “ Ah, that is gratitude ! ” you say. It is not; for a case 
is on record where the blood from a man’s arm was conveyed into 
the veins of a young girl while she was in a swoon. The man 
fainted, was carried out, recovered, and went to sea. The girl got 
well, — grew up. Ten years elapsed ; she became melanchoty, — 
remained so; felt an inexpressible longing for something, she 
knew not what. War broke out; she left her country ; went to a 
distant one ; still was unhappy. At length she was walking along 
the streets, passed through a crowd, went directly to a poorly-clad 
sailor man, took his hand, felt her longing gratified; took him 
home, — she was rich, — had him cleaned up, married him in ten 
days ; lived with him four years ; was inexpressibly happ} r ; found 
out that he was the very man ivhose blood ran through her veins ! 
I advise all the wives to get some of their husbands’ blood trans¬ 
fused into their veins ; • it’s a capital experiment, —will pay well! 
The inference is plain that love is a physical element, else how 
came that nameless longing? 

3. That love is a physical element is proved by its effects ; for 
hunger conquers it. IIow many free-lovers live on cooling diet? 
Nary one ! The} r go in for beef to a man— or woman. Women, 
under the pangs of hunger, have been known to dine off a child. 
Poverty kills love bjr cutting off the supply of highly flavored 
food. Condiments increase love ; acids and alkalies very soon 
destroy it. Drunkards abuse wives and children, because the fusil 
oil and aquafortis, constituting the bases of the liquors drank, 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


137 


destroy the power of the glands alluded to elsewhere. Modern 
tangle-leg whiskey, warranted to kill at forty paces, kills love at 
twice that distance, on principles purely chemical. The strawberry 
and pear, peach and grape, make love ; and that’s why the French 
are such general lovers. Beer and malt destroy love ; that’s why 
England is the land of wife-misery. 

4. Methodist love-feasts prove the materiality of love. The 
sisters affect the brothers, and then the brothers react upon the 
sisters. Love-aura fills the room, and all become impregnated 
therewith, especially the sisters. They all become psychologized, 
and call it the “ grace of God.” It’s a very good sort of psychol¬ 
ogy ; I rather like it. A brother prays, and the more vigorous 
his body the more unction will his prayer have; his love is at 
high-tide. Next day he finds himself played out, and can’t get 
up the glory again, except on a capital of good eating! 

5. The love-element may become diseased; it is often so. 
That’s the cause of so many miserable families. The love of a man, 
being diseased, acts as a direct poison upon his wife, in consequence 
of which she soon grows thin, pale, or sallow. Affection and re¬ 
spect fty out of the window, and the home becomes a hell on earth, 
— a hell, too, which a little common sense, such as is herein set 
forth, will speedily retransform into a happy heaven. I advise 
the philosophers to try it. 

6. Love is life, is heat, is energy. The old heads knew it, 
when they tried to reanimate the used-up David with a Bathsheba 
bath ; but it didn’t work. Why ? Because his excesses had deprived 
him of responsive power. He was that awful spectacle, — a human 
wreck. 

7. ^Christ was perfect love, incarnate. That’s w r hy he was so 
good a doctor. Modern M. D.’s cure by the laying on of hands. 
How ? They rouse up the organs of the patient by infusion of 
their own love. If they keep it up long it is dangerous — they 
waste away. Why? Because their love is exhausted. 

8. There is a class of human vampyres in the world, who draw 
out the love of all of the opposite sex with whom they come in 
contact. People near whom they move feel the virtue going from 
them in streams. I speak of professional vampyres ; but a similar 
phenomenon occurs with honest people. They are drawn to each 
other with terrible power ; it is love seeking its equilibrium. They 



138 


LOVE AND ITS HIDDEN HISTORY. 


must part or fall! The only safety is in instant flight! This 
thing is thought to be a mental or spiritual affair ; it is not so! It 
is physical. 

The tests of diseased love are various; but a harsh, cracked 
voice is an infallible sign. A deep, round, full-toned one is a sign 
of health. The walk is also a method of judgment. Show me a 
man’s well-worn boot, or a woman’s shoe, and I’ll tell 3 r ou the state 
of their love in five minutes. If I was a 3 r oung woman, I would 
marry the man whose avowed affection for me survived a good 
strong course of cathartic medicine, and cold baths in the winter. 
It’s astonishing to behold the effect of cold water poured down the 
back of an ardent lover. It will make him swear, very likety. If 
love is so ethereal, why is it always thus affected by blue-pills and 
shower-baths? Why can’t it withstand hunger, cold, sea-sickness, 
and calomel ? 

If love isn’t material, why do honeymoons degenerate into the 
worst sort of vinegar so soon ? 

In conclusion, let me say, that while contending for the materi¬ 
ality of love, I do not deny the existence of a moral force some¬ 
what analogous. They call this force religion, and its domain 
is the human soul, just as love is in the human bod 3 ^. We shall 
outlive all earthly loves and all earthly unions ; for the only mis¬ 
sion of love is to stock the world. To that country where we go 
at death, we shall carry our religion, our hopes, affections, 
memories, faith, justice, pity, mercy, benevolence, generosity, and 
goodness ; but purely earthly phases of love are'then left behind. 
We shall no longer fall before it, no longer struggle in its toils — 
no longer be led astray by its falsehoods, or be pierced b 3 r its 
arrows. When I get there, I expect to grow new loves, fitted and 
adapted to the new conditions. When there, it will be time 
enough to exercise my “ divine loves and nature,” for there, per¬ 
haps, the 3 " will be needed ; but while here our time is best employed 
in purifying the every-day human lives, and cultivating and 
cleansing the human loves. Philosophers may call us all by the 
title “ angel; ” perhaps they are such, but as for me, I am only a 
poor, weak, fallible, erring man. 


PART 


SECOHSTD. 


3 ^ 00 - 


CLAIRVOYANCE, OR SOMNAMBULIC VISION; ITS ART AND CUL¬ 
TURE, WITH RULES FOR ITS ATTAINMENT. 

I trust I may be pardoned if I make another attempt to rescue 
the subject of somnambulic vision from the charlatanry of the da}^ 
In these days clairvoyance, which is a natural power inherent in 
the race, is regarded as a sort of forbidden, or rare, wonder, mixed 
up with mesmerism, fraud, circles, and so on, while it is also the 
garb under which more barefaced swindling is carried on than any 
other one gift of God to civilized man. I hold it to be emphatically 
true, that 

No curtain hides from view the spheres elysian, 

Save these poor shells of half transparent dust; 

» While all that blinds the spiritual vision 

Is pride and hate and lust. 


And I believe clairvoyance to be the birthright of every human 
being; that all will one day possess it; that children will be born 
so ; and that even now, coarse as we are, some of us — a great per¬ 
centage of the people — can develop it to a most surprising extent. 
In the first place let it be distinctly understood that there are two 
sources of light — solar, planetary, and astral — adapted to mate¬ 
rial eyes, and that, independent of that, every globe in space is 
cushioned upon the ether, and that this ether is one vast bil¬ 
lowy sea of magnetic light, and is the media of an inner sense of 
light, and the whole mystery is at once cleared up, and the clap¬ 
trap of the charlatans at once exploded and exposed. And thus 
this wonderful power is resolved into the mere sensitive ability to 

come en rapport with this vast ocean of inner light, which may 

139 



140 


INTERIOR VISION. 


quite easily be done, as will herein be briefly shown. All that is 
required is simply patience. 

Clairvoyance is the art and power of knowing or cognizing facts, 
things, and principles, by methods totally distinct from those usu¬ 
ally pursued in their attainment. I claim to have reduced it to a 
system, and to have evolved science from heterogeneity; to have 
added new thought, new conception, opened new fields of investi¬ 
gation, and to have discovered the central magnetic law, underly¬ 
ing and subtending the evolutions of somnambulic phenomena, — 
a brief resume of which I herewith present. 

We are approaching the termination of the first stages of civi¬ 
lization, are bidding farewell to many of its modes, moods, opin¬ 
ions, sentiments, thoughts, and procedures, and are entering upon 
a new epoch of human history and might, destined to develop 
powers in man, now latent mainly, but which will yet revolutionize 
the globe. On earth man is greatest, mind the greatest part of 
man, and clairvoyance the greatest part of mind. * . . . Clair¬ 

voyance depends upon a peculiar condition of the nerves and brain. 
It is compatible with the most robust health, albeit oftenest re¬ 
sulting from disordered nerves. The discovery consists in the 
knowledge of the exact method how , the precise spot where , and 
the proper time when, to apply the specific mesmeric current to any 
given person, in order to produce the coma and lucidit}^. A careful 
following of the rules herein laid down is generally sufficient to 
enable the aspirant to attain his or her end. 

At the start let it be distinctly understood that fear, doubt, ner¬ 
vous agitation, coarse habits, or bad intent, will retard success, 
and may prevent it altogether. 

When a person cannot be mesmerized through the eye, head, or 
by reverse passes, success often will follow if the clothes be wet 
with slightly vinegared water, just over the pit of the stomach and 
small of the back. If an operator acts, let his left hand cover the 
rear wet spot, his right the front one, while the gazing process con¬ 
tinues as before. Reason : The brain is not the only seat of ner¬ 
vous power ; and we can often reach and subdue it by and through 
the nerves, nervous matter, and ganglia, situate along and within 
the backbone. If tractors or magnets are used, their points should 
be placed just as would be the mesmerizer’s hands, and the experi¬ 
ment be continued as before. 


INTERIOR VISION. 


141 


At first, clairvoyance, like any movement, nervous or muscular, 
requires a special effort, but it soon becomes automatic, involun¬ 
tary, mechanical. Keep your design constantly before you, 

AND YOUR SOUL AND INNER SENSES WILL MAKE GROOVES FOR THEM¬ 
SELVES, AND CONTINUE TO MOVE IN THEM AS CARS ON RAILS OR 

wheels in ruts. Let your groove be clair -voyance! 

Lucidity is no gift, but a universal possibility common to the 
human race. (Idiots can and do have it.) It is latent, or still 
mind-power, and can be brought to the surface in a majority of 
cases. Omnia vincit labor! 

All mental action comes through nervous action, but in these 
cases the result must be reached outside our usual mental habi¬ 
tudes and paths. The person who attempts to reach clairvoyance, 
and gets discouraged after a few trials, don’t merit the power. If 
you begin, either by agents or mesmerists, keep right on. Every 
experiment lands you one step nearer success, and that, too, whether 
you aim at psychometry, lucidity, or any one of the fifty phases 
or grades of occult power. 

Remember that physical conditions influence, modify, and de¬ 
termine mental states, whether these be normal or recondite and 
mysterious. 

Nor forget that pure blood gives pure power. If your blood is 
foul with scrofula, pork fat, rum, venereal, suspended menses (by 
nursing, cold, or, perchance, pregnancy), don’t attempt clairvoy¬ 
ance till you are free from it. Artists prepare their paints, — you 
must prepare your body ; else no good picture comes, no lucidity 
follows. Sound lungs, stomach, kidneys, liver, brain, blood, 
heart, urinal vessels, womb, and pelvic apparatus are not absolute 
essentials , but good preparatives. Above all, the blood must be 
purified, vacated of its poisons, rheums (alkalies, acids in excess), 
and be toned up to concert pitch, if you would enjoy the music of 
the spheres, and know beyond your outer knowing. 

Food, digestion, drinks, sleep, must all be attended to. Mes¬ 
meric subjects at first become quite passional, — the devil’s bridge. 
Look out you don’t fall through it, for true clairvoyance is coinci¬ 
dent only with normal appetites normally sated. Excess destroys 
it. Every passion, except the grosser, has a normal spheie. 

Clairvoyance is qualitative and quantitative, like all othei men¬ 
tal forces. It is limited, fragmentary, incomplete, in all, because 



142 


INTERIOR VISION. 


we are all imperfect; but no other being can occupy your or my 
ground, or be so great in our respective directions as we are. No 
one exactly is like us, — we precisely like nobod 3 >-. We are like the 
world, —green spots and deserts,— arid here, frozen there,— fertile 
in one spot, sterile in another; therefore we should cultivate our 
special loves! Clairvoyant vigor demands attention to the law: 
u The eternal equation of vital vigor is, Rest equals exercise.” Re¬ 
member this, and retain your power. Clairvoyance is an affair of 
the air, food, drink, love, passion, light, sleep, health, rest, sun¬ 
shine, joy, music, labor, exercise, lungs, liver, blood, quite as much 
as of mesmerism and magnetic coma, for all mental operations are 
physically conditioned. 

Clairvoyance is an art, like any other. The elements exist, but 
to be useful must be S 3 ? stemized. It has hitherto been pursued, 
not rationally, but empirically, — as a blind habit, a sort of gym-: 
nasties, a means to swindle people, and scarce ever under in¬ 
telligent guidance like the logical or mathematical or musical 
faculties of the soul, albeit more valuable than either, and like 
them, too, subject to the laws of growth. It is far-reaching, and, 
once attained, though the road is difficult, ampty repays the time 
and labor spent. It has been the study of my life, and that knowl¬ 
edge, which enables me to demonstrate the laws governing it, and 
by which it may be developed, also enables me to understand and 
impart those which attend its aberrant phenomena. This mystic 
ground has hitherto been the prolific hot-bed of a host of noxious, 
dangerous superstitions and quackeries ; and I believe my own is 
the first attempt to reclaim it to rational investigation. 

Clairvoyance is a generic term, employed to express various de¬ 
grees and modes of perception, whereby one is enabled to cognize and 
know facts, things, and principles ; or to contact certain knowl¬ 
edges, without the use, and independent of, the ordinary avenues 
of sense. It is produced or attained in various degrees, by dif¬ 
ferent methods, and is of widely diverse grades and kinds, as 

A. Pyschometry, or nervous sensitiveness, wherein the subject 
does not see at all, but comes in magnetic contact with, first, the 
peculiar material emanations or sphere given off from every person 
or object in existence, and is analogous to the power whereby a 
dog finds his master in a crowd, or a hound hunts down a fugitive 
and pursues him unerringly, from having smelt a garment once 



INTERIOR VISION. 


143 


worn by that fugitive. By this sense of feeling persons come en 
rapport with others present, distant, dead, or alive, and when the 
sensitiveness is great, are enabled to sympathetically feel, hence 
describe, that person’s physical, social, moral,-amative, and intel¬ 
lectual condition, and, in extraordinary cases, can discern and de¬ 
tect diseases, both of mind, affections, and body, without, however, 
being qualified to treat or cure said aberrations. Every city in the 
land abounds with persons claiming to be “ clairvoyants,” who 
are not so in any sense whatever, but are, to a greater or less ex¬ 
tent, mere sensitives at best; but, in by far the majority of ca¬ 
ses, such are rank impostors, fortune-tellers, and charlatans, who 
eke out a living by dint of a very little good guessing, and a great 
deal of tall lying. The majority are females of lax principles, 
who keep a lounge and drawn curtains, — pestilent vampyres, red¬ 
olent of filth moral, intellectual, and physical, who are loaded with 
the exuviae of death, and charge a man or woman with the very 
vapor of ruin itself. 

B. Psychometry can be deepened into absolute perception by 
carefully noting the first and strongest impressions resulting from 
contact with a person, letter, or object, and afterward ascertaining 
the correctness of the verdict come to. A little careful experi¬ 
mentation will develop good results and demonstrate that clair¬ 
voyance is an attainable qualification, with proper patience and 
active effort. 

C. Intuition — the highest quality of the human mind — is la¬ 
tent in most people, developable in nearly all; is trainable, and, 
when active, is the highest kind of clairvoyance. It is the effort¬ 
less, instantaneous perception of facts, principles, events, and 
things. The rule for its promotion is simpty, When it tells a tale 
to test it at once. In R brief time the perceptions will grow clear¬ 
er, stronger, more full, frequent, and free. 

D. The differences between clairvoyance, feeling, or psychom¬ 
etry, and intuition, are these: the first sees, the second feels, the 
third knows instantly. 

In our ordinary state, we see through a glass darkly; in clair¬ 
voyance, we see with more or less distinctness ; in psychometry, 
we feel with greater or less intensity, and in intuition, we leap to 
results at a single bound. There are hundreds who imagine they 
possess one or all of these faculties or qualifications, and arrogate 


144 


INTERIOR VISION. 


much importance, merely because the ideas have made a strong 
impression on their minds ; or perhaps they have seen one or two 
visions or spectral sparks or flashes. Such are what they claim to 
be, only in the w&h. They need training. For clairvoyance is a 
thing of actual system, rule, and law, and whoever would have it 
in its completeness or complexity , must- conform to the science 
thereof, if they expect good results to ensue. 

E. The actual Perception is of various kinds and degrees. 
It does not require brilliant talents for its development, for many 
seers are inferior morally, organically, spiritually, and intellectual¬ 
ly ; yet the higher, more brilliant, and finely constituted a person 
is, the higher and nobler is the clairvoyance they will develop. 
Some subjects never get beyond the power to hunt up stolen or 
lost property; others stop at the half-way house of telling for¬ 
tunes ; a number reach the scientific plane, while but a few attain 
that magnificent sweep of intellect and vision that leaps the 
world’s barriers, forces the gates of death, and revels in the sub¬ 
lime mysteries of the universes. The purer the subject, the better 
the faculty, is the rule. Goodness, not mere knowledge, is power. 
Remember this! 

F. No two persons’ clairvoyance is precisely alike. Each one 
has a personal idiosyncrasy that invariably determines his or her 
specialty, and, whatever that specialty may chance to be, should 
be encouraged, for in that he or she will excel, and in no other. 
The attempt to force nature will be so much lost time and wasted 
effort. I say this after an experience of twenty years. I had a 
specialty for the occult, and an early friend, whom I loved tenderly, 
became unhappy by reason of an accident that, for ten 3 T ears, ren¬ 
dered him utterly wretched and miserable. He lost all taste for 
life because of his injury and its effects, ancl was often tempted to 
self-murder, and an estrangement sprung up between himself and 
wife, one of the most beautiful and accomplished ladies in Amer¬ 
ica. A more deplorable wreck was never seen. The wife became 
morbid, and they used to visit mediums and clairvoyants in hopes 
of a cure. At that time, 1853, I was a mesmeric subject, and ex¬ 
amined for two French physicians in New York, — Drs. Toutain 
and Bergevin. Here I first saw and prescribed for the man, who 
afterward became my personal friend. Himself and lady were kind 
to me, and kindness won my undying love. I have had so little of 


V 


INTERIOR VISION. 


145 


it in this world, have so often been robbed, plundered, and traduced, 
by so-called friends, that when a real one appeared, I hailed it as 
the Gieeks hailed the sea. I sat one hundred and eighteen times 
for my friend and his wife, searching for a means of cure, made 
many costly experiments, and finally was rewarded by a grand 
discover}^. 

And so I say to all clairvoyant aspirants, Adopt a specialty , and 
pursue it steadily during your life. 

Gr. When a mesmeric u Circle,” self-magnetizing, or (which I 
do not advise) varied experiment for clairvoyance, bids fair to be¬ 
come a success, and the subject sees flashes, sparks, white clouds, 
rolling balls of light vapor, or is partially lucid, the tendency of 
the mind should be carefully noted, and the future direction of the 
power or faculty be fully decided on, sought for, aimed at, and. 
strictty, persistently, faithfully followed, until a splendid and never- 
to-be-doubted triumph and success crown your efforts. If you in¬ 
tend to examine and prescribe for disease ; u will-throwing,” or 
read people ; to hunt up lost goods ; detect thieves ; make business 
examinations, — in short, any special thing ; cultivate that thing and 
no other , else you will spoil your sight, dim your light, and become 
a sort of Jack-at-all-trades, master of none. You cannot excel in 
finding lost property, reading the love-life of amorous people, and 
also describe and prescribe for sick folks. No; the rule is, One 
thing, and that thing well. Let the rest alone. 

Again ; people are too impatient. They push a somnambule 
too fast and too far. Be careful, if you look for success. Go 
short journeys, at a slow pace, if you expect to hold out. While 
clairvoyant for-the French doctors, and others, in New York, I 
frequently not only examined fifty cases of disease a day, but 
made all sorts of explorations in as many different directions ; the 
consequence of which was a chronic lassitude, d 3 "spepsia, angu¬ 
larity, and great irritability of temper, by reason of the unwise 
step and resultant nervousness. 

H. There are various hinds , as well as degrees, of clairvoy¬ 
ance: Natural, Intellectual, Medical, Spiritual, and Divine, So¬ 
cial, Practical, and purely Mental. Or a clear-seeing of material 
forms ; lucidity of mind, generally ; lucidity of special cerebral 
organs ; lucidity upon certain points, — as Medicine, Spiritualism, 
Religion, Philosophy, Science, Lcgic, Art, Love, etc. There are 
10 


146 


INTERIOR VISION. 


many pretenders to all these, nine in ten of whom are rank im¬ 
postors. 

There is a clairvoyance of Introspection, Inspection, and Pro¬ 
jection, and these have their appropriate fields in the past, 
present, and the future; all of which are easily developed and 
perfected. 

There is the common somnambulic or mesmerically induced lu¬ 
cidity. It also comes through the coma or trance, however pro¬ 
duced ; and yet it is by no means necessary that the patient be 
fully entranced in order to produce the distinct lucidity. I know 
capital seers who never were entranced ; who never lost their con¬ 
sciousness for a moment. But such cases are far from being com¬ 
mon or usual. This first kind of vision exhausts itself on material 
• objects alone, — a mere perception of things without penetrating 
power. The next stage it reaches is that of mind-reading. In 
1853, 4, 5, the writer hereof had this power to a remarkable 
degree ; used to play cards, chess, and read books, blindfold ; and 
this power caused him to be invited to visit Paris, where he exhib¬ 
ited it to the astonishment of the savans , and his own glorification. 
Practically, the thing is useless. 

There is a perception, one grade higher than this last, which 
enables the subject to come en rapport with the surface and es¬ 
sence of things, as a tree, man, woman, herbs, etc.; and it grows 
till the seer beholds and explains somewhat of the penetralia of 
things ; and it culminates in the condition wherein the mind, leap¬ 
ing all the barriers of the outer senses and world, sees and knows 
things altogether beyond their ranges, and approaches the awful 
realms of Positive Spirit. 

Special cerebral organs become lucid, soon succeeded by an 
entire illumination of the brain. This is a grand, a sublime, a 
holy degree; for the subject sees, senses, feels, knoivs , by a royal 
power ; is en rapport with a thousand knowledges. A step further, 
a step inward, and the subject is in harmony with both the upper 
and lower universes. He or she thenceforth is a Power in the 
World. All clairvoyants may not claim genius, but all true 
genius is clairvoyant. Mere talents are dry leaves, tossed up and 
down by gusts of passion, and scattered and swept away; but 
Genius lies on the bosom of Memory, and Gratitude at her 
feet. 


INTERIOR VISION. 


147 


I. Very few persons will fail who strictly conform to the gener¬ 
al rules here laid down, and fewer still who follow the special 
plans determined upon. As a rule,, I find it safe to declare, that 
in every one hundred cases seventy-five can become partly lucid ; 
sixty-three can become sensitives ; forty-five can reach the second, 
thirty-two the third, fourteen the fourth, five the fifth, and two the 
highest degree of clairvoyance their peculiar organization is capa¬ 
ble of attaining. Of one hundred men, fifty-six can become 
seers ; of two hundred women, one hundred and eighty can become 
so. 

Magnetic Clairvoyance is that induced by holding the head 
close to the open horns of a large and powerful horse-shoe magnet. 
It may be suspended from the ceiling and held to the head lying 
down, so that when let go it will spring away, or come in contact 
with its armature (a nail will do) so as to close the circuit. A 
quartz cr}*stal is nearly as good for this purpose as a horse-slioe 
magnet; but I prefer a bar magnet to either. 

Mesmeric Circles differ from Spiritual, in that to be proper, 
all who are in one should be insulated ; the chairs, and tables, and 
footstools should rest on glass knobs made on purpose. In these 
circles, the chances are ten to one that some will go off into the 
mesmeric coma on the first trial. The circle must wish, will, 
desire, and favorable results are almost sure to follow. Have pa¬ 
tience, if they do not. 

Note. — All clairvoyants should, to be useful, successful, and 
enduring, cultivate the habit of deep breathing ; for all brain power 
depends upon lung power , nor can continued ability exist if this 
be neglected. All clairvoyants should feed on the best things 
attainable. Again, all clairvoyants must use great caution in 
matters of sex. Abstinence is good ; totally .so, is better, for an 
error in that direction is fatal to clear vision, or its perpetuity 
when possessed. 

I am told by a friend of mine, in Paris, the best male seer in 
France, that carelessness in this respect cost him the loss of his 
vision for a period of seven months. If the party desires to de¬ 
velop sensitiveness only, with a view of becoming a psychometrist, 
this caution does not apply with such force. If a person was to 
ask me, is it best to try to be a clairvoyant or a good psychometrist, 
I should unhesitatingly say the latter, by all means, for it is more 


148 


INTERIOR VISION. 


easily attained, and, to say the least, is quite as useful, if money¬ 
making and tests are the objects sought to be gained. 

In ail mesmeric experiments, individual or collective, very few 
become, at first trial, true l^pnotic subjects; and some can never 
be, owing to peculiarities of organization. The matter can be 
tested in a variety of ways, — as, for instance, the usual “ passes ” 
nfliy be reversed. Or the doubtful subject may look steadily at a 
speck on the wall for six minutes. If drowsy at the end of that 
time, and the eyeballs have a tendency to roll up, the person is a 
subject, and all that is required is patience. Or breathe rapidly, 
forcibly, for ninety seconds. If it makes j r ou dizzy, you are a 
subject, and can enter the somnambulic state in any one of a doz¬ 
en ways. This same operation, often repeated, is almost certain 
to produce coma; and if done while.lying down, in connection 
with the horse-shoe magnet operation, will prove successful in en¬ 
abling the person to see without e} r es. In all cases the room 
should be quite dark. (N. B .—All magnetic, odyllic, and mes¬ 
meric processes are twenty times oftener productive of grand 
results if conducted in a dark chamber, than in one lighted artifi¬ 
cially, or by the sun. Next to a thoroughly dark room, moonlight 
is best, and starlight better still.) If, at the end of a few min¬ 
utes, sparks, flashes, streaks of quick and lingering light are seen, 
or phosphor clouds float before the face, then one of two things is 
immediately probable. First, that the party by continuance and 
repetition can be clairvoyant; or, second, if not too scary , these 
clouds and sparks ma}' - resolve themselves into spiritual forms of 
friends long gone, but unlost. 

Forty-eight out of fifty mesmeric experiments fail because the 
operator wastes, not saves, diffuses, instead of focalizes, the mes¬ 
meric force that streams from the eye and fingers. Rules. — Sub¬ 
ject and operator must be of opposite sex, temperament, complex¬ 
ion, size, stature, hair, eyes, build, and so on throughout, in order 
to bring about the best results, without reference to all the talk 
about positive and negative, which is mostly nonsense; for I 
have known a sweet miss only six years old, to thoroughly and 
effectively mesmerize her great burly uncle, — a man capable of 
knocking a bull down with one stroke of his ponderous fist, and 
who was one of the roughest sea-tyrants that ever trod a quarter 
deck, and yet the little lady rendered him not only helpless, but 


INTERIOR VISION. 


149 


clairvoyant, by repeatedly manipulating his head while he held her 
on his lap in his daily calls. She had witnessed a few experi¬ 
ments, believed she could do the same, tried it on four times, and 
accomplished it in great glee on the fifth attempt. But the great¬ 
est miracle of all was, that the captain’s nature became entirely . 
changed, and to-day a better or a gentler man does not sail out 
of New Tork harbor! Concentrate your attention on a single 
point in the subject’s head; keep it there. Do ndt let your 
thoughts wander. Gaze steadily at it, and it alone, gently waving 
your head and hands over it from right to left, left to right. Re¬ 
peat the process at the same time , daily, for one hour, till the 
sleep is thoroughly induced. When it is, and you are perfectly 
satisfied of the fact, you will be stro7igly tempted to ask questions. 
Don’t you do it! Resist it. Deepen the slumber in seven sittings 
after perfect insensibility ensues! The eighth time you may ask a 
few questions, and but a few. Lead the subject slowly, tenderly, 
holily, gently along, step by step, one subject at a time, and that 
subject thoroughly , — not forgetting wdiat I have said about “ spe¬ 
cialties.” 

J. Persons ambitious to become clairvoyant must not forget 
that a full habit, amorous pleasures, high living, and mental ex¬ 
citement, all are disqualifications. The entire diet must be 
changed ; the linen often ; the skin, especially the head and hair, 
must be kept scrupulously clean; and, to insure speedy success, 
the food should be very light; fruit, and tea, coffee, and milk 
may be freely used; but no chocolate, fat, oysters, pastry, and 
but very little sugar. Nor should the person fail to think, wish, 
and will the end aimed at continually. Soft and plaintive music 
is a capital adjunct. 

K. The experiments should always be made at first with but 
few spectators, in a darkened room ; and perfect trust should 
exist between operator and subject. And here let me state that 
no woman should allow herself to be mesmerized by a man whose 
principles she cannot fully trust to, for any man can seduce any 
woman whom he sits by, in magnetic rapport. 

L. For some purposes I prefer the Oriental methods of clair¬ 
voyance to the full magnetism of European and American prac¬ 
tice. These are: first, the mesmerist places a few drops of ink 
in a proper vessel; gazes therein himself (magnetizing it), and 



150 


INTERIOR VISION. 


bids the subject gaze also. Presently, the subject will behold a 
vision in it, and will see pictures of whatever is desired. 

I now give the special method of thorough magnetization. 
First: Let the room be partly darkened. Let there be a mirror 
■in the north end ; let the subject’s back be toward that mirror, but 
take care that he or she sits so that the reflected ray of light 
(magnetism) from the operator’s e}m will strike the back of his or 
her head, the subject receiving the reflected ray, — or, operator, 
subject, and mirror, forming a triangle, which any school-boy can 
arrange in a moment. Now the subject sits in a chair fully insu¬ 
lated, the feet being on an insulated stool, and no part of the 
dress or chair touching the floor. The operator also stands or 
sits on an insulated stool, and, if he is weak in nervous force, 
should be fully charged with electricity, or from a battery. If 
spectators are present, seat them silently in the south, east, and 
west, but not a soul in the north. No silk, not even a cravat, 
must be allowed in the room. If a piano is there, let some soft 
and tender chord be played ; but take care not to play more than 
that one on that evening. Previous to the experiment, two mag¬ 
nets have been suspended, one north pole up, the other down, so 
as to embrace the subject’s head without much pressure ; the poles 
must antagonize, and a current will be sent entirely through the 
head. Now be careful. You have alread}^ prepared a magnet, or 
magnetic bar, and when the subject is seated, and the magnets ar¬ 
ranged, the operator looks steadily at that point of the looking- 
glass, whence the reflected ray will glance off and strike the back 
of the subject’s head, just between the fork of the northern mag¬ 
net, and while doing so he points the bar magnet directly toward 
the open neck of the subject. In a few minutes there ought to be 
perfect magnetic slumber, and frequently the most surprising 
clairvoyance exhibited. It is still better if all the spectators 
grasp a cord on whhah a copper and iron wire has been bound, the 
ends being fastened to a chair, so that they point directly to the 
subject’s body. If these directions be faithfully observed, success 
will follow nine times in every ten experiments. 

I may also observe that a slight alteration will render this cir¬ 
cle unequalled for spiritual purposes. In such cases let all sit 
round a table itself, the chairs and stools being wholly insulated. 
If the room be darkened, you may and probably will have curious 


INTERIOR VISION. 


151 


spectral phenomena. But I advise the chord to be played all the 
time till results sought for are obtained. Again, let a person sit 
facing the south, insulated, with the magnets in contact as before, 

the person being alone, — and the results desired are almost cer¬ 
tain to follow. But let me here say that no one in or out of a cir¬ 
cle can reach good and speedy results unless perfectly and abso¬ 
lutely clean. The bath is the very best of preparations for these 
experiments, and cannot be neglected with impunity. I have 
known many successes and some failures in conducting all of the 
above experiments both in this country, England, and France, and 
I give it as my deliberate opinion that no one need fail in them, 
and will not, unless their own folly and impatience ruin all. 

All phantasma are based upon the eternal fact, that whatever 
exists is something; that thoughts are things, that spirit is real 
substance, that all things photograph themselves upon other sur¬ 
faces ; that sensitives can see and contact these shadows, lights, 
impressions, and images, —as abundantly demonstrated by Baron 
Von Beichenbach in his researches into the arcana of chemism, 
light, force and magnetism; also by thousands of others in all 
lands, and especially in these days, wherein disbodied people pro¬ 
ject an image of themselves upon paper, the artist sketching the 
outline with a pencil, thus producing pictures of the dead, recog¬ 
nizable b}’' all who ever saw them when walking in flesh and blood. 
Now, the fact that dead people can and do project images of them¬ 
selves upon the retinas of sensitives, upon the aura that surrounds 
certain people, upon similar emanations from houses (haunted !), 
so plainly that hundreds can see them clear as noonday, is so firm¬ 
ly established that few are so hardy as to deny what is thus, upon 
the testimony of millions, in all ages, absolutely and unequivocally 
demonstrated. 

It is equally well established, however fools ma}' sneer, that for 
ages men of the loftiest mental power have used various agents as 
a means of vision, either to bring themselves in contact with the 
supernal realms of the ether, or to afford a sensitive surface 
upon which the attendant dead could, can, and do , temporally 
photograph whatever they choose to, or conditions permit. 

During my travels through Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Arabia, 
Syria, and my intercourse with the Voudeaux of New Orleans and 
Long Island, I became thoroughly convinced of the existence of 




152 


INTERIOR VISION. 


two kinds of magic: one good and beneficent, ruled and gov¬ 
erned bjr the Adonim ; the other foul, malevolent, revengeful, lust¬ 
ful, and malignant. They antagonize each other. The one revels 
in the saturnalia of the passions ; the other, the true Rosicrucian, 
moves in the light-producing Shadow of the Over Soul. In the 
one, the adept is surrounded by an innumerable host of viewless 
. powers, who lead him on to great ends and power, but finally sap 
out his life, and utterly ruin and destroy him or her. And this ac¬ 
counts for much of ill seen and experienced by modern sensitives. 

The other leads its votaries through the glimmer toward the 
light, and unfolds at length that Final and Crowning Clairvoy- 
ance, which consists in a clear perception of relations, causes, 
connecting links, effects, and uses, by far the noblest and highest 
attainable while embodied, and this it is that I aim to enable oth¬ 
ers to reach. But take notice : tiie true clairvoyant in 

THIS SUBLIME DEGREE MOVES AND ACTS ABOVE AND BEYOND THE 
TEMPESTUOUS REALM OF THE PASSIONS-DEFIES THEIR UTMOST 

power. Passion dims the soul’s best vision. To reach this 
lofty eminence, the subject’s physical system ought to be purified 
and proper preparation be made. Food, raiment, habits, thoughts, 
impulses, all must be modified, for it is idle for any one to expect 
to reach the greatest apex of possible mental power, unless the 
right kind of effort be first made. It is God’s highest gift to indi¬ 
vidual man, and cannot be had without a struggle. Since the 
first edition of this little hand-book (originally printed for sixty sub¬ 
scribers afterward, for five hundred more) was printed, several imi¬ 
tations of it have been born into the world of letters, and every one 
that I have seen, written by persons who have never known Tvhat 
clairvoyance really is; for it is a demonstrable fact that but a very 
small percentage are really lucid of all the vast throng that claim 
this divine and superlatively holy power. 

The old-time mesmeric processes — not the mere so-called “ ps} r - 
chologiziug” — Phoebus, what a word! — nor the “ biological ” 
manipulations, once in such high repute wherever their “profes¬ 
sors ” — heaven save the mark ! — could procure, a hall and a gul¬ 
lible flock of witnesses ; but the good old-fashioned mesmeric in¬ 
duction, seems, in these latter spiritual times, to have come to an 
almost total stop and failure, for not one in every hundred exper¬ 
iments is a decided success according to the ancient standard of 


INTERIOR VISION. 


153 


twenty years ; ago and the universal complaint and testimony are 
that as soon as a subject is once fairly inducted into the hypnotic 
condition, he or she immediately passes from under the mesmerist’s 
control, and either announces a determination to “ go it alone,” or 
become the “ subject” of some disembodied person, at once enter¬ 
ing the domain of mediumship, and thenceforth becoming wholly 
useless in a mesmeric point of view. Now, I think there is no 
real necessity for such a state of things, nor do I believe it would 
happen were it not that the operator is deficient in the prime ele¬ 
ments of resolution and will, — without both of which, the matter 
had better not be undertaken at all. Another reason for these fre¬ 
quent failures to produce magnetic states and the concurrent pow¬ 
ers of lucidity results from the fact that men who mesmerize fe¬ 
males become too susceptible to the powers and influences of lust, 
and during the operation of magnetizing are too full of lascivious 
imaginings and hopes to pay strict regard to the matter in hand, 
and hence the subject spurns the control and acts independentl} 7 , 
or the invisible friends that hover about incontinently clap a stop¬ 
per over all, and forthwith veto and annul the whole affair; for 
which kindly providence they merit and receive my most hearty 
thanks, and those of all other well-wishers of his kind, here or 
over there. 

Not all invisible onlookers, however, are to be counted in along 
with seraphs and angels, nor do they always take a subject away 
from the mesmerist for that subject’s good ; but it may happen 
that obsessing spirits of the “Voodoo” grades step in to serve 
their own peculiar ends. People may laugh as much as they 
please at the idea of wicked, mean, obsessing, tantalizing, tempt¬ 
ing spirits, or at the old notions of the alchemists and others of 
that ilk ; but my researches and experience tell a far different 
story. When it is asserted that there is no inner world of mystic 
forces under the sun ; — that there are no mysterious means whereby 
ends both good and ill can be wrought at any distance ; that the 
so called “spells,” “charms” and “projects” are mere notions, 
having no firmer foundation than superstition or empty air alone, — 
then I flatly deny all such assertions, and affirm the conclusions ar¬ 
rived at are so reached by persons wholly ignorant of the invis¬ 
ible world about us, and of the inner powers of the human mind. 
Although I am not called upon here to explain the rationale 


154 


INTERIOR VISION. 


involved in this special department at full length, yet elsewhere I 
have clearty indicated the direction in which they are to be found. 
As well tell me that the sun don’t rise, as that there are no means 
whereby two dissevered persons cannot be brought in contact, or 
that methods do not exist by means of which one person can as¬ 
suredly so work upon another as to gain desired ends (of course 
said ends ought always to be good, but even if they be evil, the self¬ 
same principle and power exists, and can be easily brought into 
active play and power), no matter whether said ends be those of 
love, affection, jealousy, revenge, or love of gain, and lust of 
power. I have seen too much of that sort of thing in Asia, Af¬ 
rica, France, California, England, Long Island, and New Orleans, 
to doubt the evidences of my senses, and the experience of years 
of attentive study of this branch of the great magnetic law, to 
doubt it. Indeed, so thoroughly convinced was I of the truth, that 
I spent jmars in travel and association with experts in order to be¬ 
come master of the processes and the rather unpleasant secrets of 
the lower (as well as of the higher) kind. In New Orleans noth¬ 
ing is more common than for both men and women to employ the 
voudeaux to effect contact with loved or desired ones. I have 
never known a failure, albeit some experiments of acquaintances 
of mine were rather expensive. A man loves a woman and earn- 
not reach her, or vice versa; then comes in the voud. I have a 
personal story to tell on this head, with living witnesses in Bos¬ 
ton, that would convince the most sceptical person living. More 
than that: in this matter of sympathetic art I know that a pair of 
twin rings, containing each others’ hair, one worn by the loved, 
the other by the lover, will blend the two in magnetic rapport to 
an astonishing degree. The whole thing is magnetic (another 
word for magic) ; and so it is also of the “ love-powder” business, 
for, although most of the charlatans who pretend to deal in them 
are conscienceless swindlers, yet it is possible to prepare and 
charge certain materials so that they will retain the nerve aura of 
one person, and impart it to another, kindling up magnetic love 
between them, just as a little yeast will leaven a whole barrel of 
flour. Again, it will not do to tell me that one person cannot 
throw a spell upon another, and affect them favorably, or the re¬ 
verse, at any distance ! Hundreds are living witnesses to-da}^ of 
my public exposure and defiance of the whole tribe of Voudeaux 


INTERIOR VISION. 


155 


in New Orleans, at the School of Liberty, in 1864-5, and it was 
from one of the Voudeaux queens (Alice H-n), — and Mad¬ 
ame D-s, a victim, that I gained much of my knowledge in 

these occult points of black magic. I have known it to be prac¬ 
tised for purposes of lust, passion, love, revenge, and pecuniary 
speculation, and always with a strange and marvellous success. 
Again, we are told that spirits of evil guard hidden treasures, and 
successfully obfuscate and confuse the would-be finders. I believe 
it; and also believe that said obfuscation can easily be overcome 
by a timely resort to powers of a higher grade. People are wont 
to laugh at and deride all this, as superstitious foil} 7 and blind 
credulity, in spite of the fact that the loftiest minds earth ever 
held, from Hermes Trismegistus, and the Alchemists, down the 
ages, to the last elected members of the Sarbonne, have believed, 
do believe it, and I glory in being found in such august company, 
including Alexander of Russia, and Napoleon III. 

In corroboration of what I have written, I beg leave to intro¬ 
duce, without comment, the following article concerning 44 Voudoo- 
ism,—African Fetich Worship among the Memphis Negroes,” 
from the 44 Memphis Appeal ” : — 

“The word Hoodoo, or Voudoo, is one of the names used in the 
different African dialects for the practice of the mysteries of the 
Obi (an African word signifying a species of sorcery and witch¬ 
craft common among the worshippers of the fetich). In the West 
Indies the word 4 Obi ’ is universally used to designate the priests 
or practisers of this art, who are called 4 Obi ’ men and 4 Obi ’ 
women. In the southern portion of the United States, —Louisi¬ 
ana, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia, — where 
the same rites are extensively practised among the negroes, and 
where, under the humanizing and Christianizing influence of the 
blessed state of freedom and idleness in which they now exist, and 
are encouraged by the Freedmen’s Bureau, the religion is rapidly 
spreading. It goes under the name of Voudooism or Hoodooism. 

44 The practisers of the art, who are always native Africans, are 
called hoodoo men or women, and are held in great dread by the 
negroes, who apply to them for the cure of diseases, to obtain 
revenge for injuries, and to discover and punish their enemies. 
The mode of operations is to prepare a fetich, which being placed 
near or in the dwelling of the person to be worked upon (under the 




156 


INTERIOR VISION. 


doorstep, or in any snug portion of the furniture) is supposed to 
produce the most dire and terrible effects upon the victim, both 
physically and mentally. Among the materials used for the fetich 
are feathers of various colors, blood, dogs’ and cats’ teeth, clay 
from graves, egg-shells, beads, and broken bits of glass. The clay 
is made into a ball with hair and rags,.bound with twine, with 
feathers, human, alligators’, or dogs’ teeth, so arranged as to make 
the whole bear a fancied resemblance to an animal of some sort. 

u The person to be hoodooed is generally made aware that the 
hoodoo is ‘ set ’ for him, and the terror created in his mind by this 
knowledge is generally sufficient to cause him to fall sick, and it 
is a curious fact, almost always to die in a species of decline. The 
intimate knowledge of the hoodoos of the insidious vegetable poi¬ 
sons that abound in the swamps of the South, enables them to use 
these with great effect in most instances. 

“ With the above as introductory, our readers will better under¬ 
stand the following, which we vouch for as strictly true in every 
particular. Names and exact locality (although we will say that 
it occurred within a few miles of this city) are withheld at the re¬ 
quest of the lady, whom we will call Mrs. A. :— 

“ Some months since the only child, a little daughter of Mrs. A., 
who had been left a widow by the war, was taken ill with what was 
then thought a slow malarious fever. The family physician was 
called in and prescribed for her, but in spite of his attentions she 
grew gradually worse, and seemed to be slowly but surely sinking 
and wasting away. Everything that medical skill could think of 
was done, but in vain. 

“ One evening, while Mrs. A. was watching by the bedside of 
the little sufferer, an old negro woman, who had been man}^ years 
in the family, expressed her belief that the child had been ‘ hoo¬ 
dooed.’ Mrs. A. was a creole of Louisiana, and, having been from 
her earliest infancy among the negroes, was familiar with, and had 
imbibed not a few of their peculiar superstitions. In despair of 
deriving any benefit from the doctors, and completely baffled and 
worn out with the peculiar lingering nature of her child’s illness, 
the suggestion of the woman made a great impression on her mind. 

“ In the neighborhood were two negroes who bore the reputa¬ 
tion of being hoodoo men. They were both Congoes, and were 
a portion of the cargo of slaves that had run into Mobile Bay in 


INTERIOR VISION. 


157 


1860 or 1861. As usual with their more civilized professional 
brethren, these two hoodoos were deadly enemies, and worked 
against each other in every possible way. Each had his own par¬ 
ticular crowd of adherents, who believed him to be able to make 
the more powerful grigats. 

“ One of these hoodoos lived on or near Mrs. A/s place, and, 
although she was ashamed of the superstition which led her to do 
so, she sent for him immediately to come over to see her child. 
The messenger returned, and said that Finney (that was the sor¬ 
cerer’s name) would come, but that Mrs. A. must first send him a 
chicken cock, three conch shells, and a piece of money with a hole 
in it. 

“ She complied with his demands, and he shortly afterward 
appeared with the cock under his arm, fancifully decorated with 
strips of jmllow, red, and blue flannel, and the three conches 
trigged up pretty much in the same manner. Placing the conches 
on the floor in the shape of a triangle, he laid the cock down in the 
centre of it on its side. He then drew his hand across it in the 
same direction three or four times. On leaving it the cock lay 
quiet and did not attempt to move, although it was loose and ap- 
parentty could have done so had it wished. 

“ After these preliminaries, he examined the child from head to 
foot, and, after doing so, broke out into a loud laugh, muttering 
words to himself in an African dialect. Turning to Mrs. A., who 
was all anxiety, he told her that the child was hoodooed, that he 
had found the marks of the hoodoo, and that it was being done 
by his rival (who lived some miles off, although considered in the 
same neighborhood), and that he (Finney) intended to show him 
that he could not come into his district hoodooing without his per¬ 
mission. 

“ He then called the servants and every one about the place up, 
and ordered them to appear one by one before him. So great was 
the respect and terror with which they regarded him, that, although 
many of them obviously did so with reluctance, not one failed to 
obey the summons. He regarded each one closely and minutely, 
and asked if he or she had seen either a strange rooster, dog, or 
cat around the house in the past few days ; to which questions they 
made various answers. The chambermaid, who attended on the 
room in which the child lay, was one of those who were particularly 


158 


INTERIOR VISION. 


reluctant to appear before him or to answer his questions. He re¬ 
marked this, and grinning so as to show his sharply filed teeth 
nearly from ear to ear, he said, 4 Ha, gal, better me find you out 
than the buckra !’ 

“This was late at night, and, after making his 4 reconnoisance,’ 
he picked up his conches and the cock, and prepared to go, telling 
Mrs. A. to move the little sufferer into another room and bed. 
Promising that he would be back early in the morning, he left the 
house. At an early hour next morning he returned with a large 
bundle of herbs, which, with peculiar incantations, he made into a 
bath, into which he placed the child, and from that hour it began 
to recover rapidly. 

44 He, however, did not stop here. He determined to find out 
the hoodoo, and how it had been used ; so, after asking permis¬ 
sion, he ripped open the pillows, and the bed in which the child 
had lain, and therein he found and brought forth a lot of fetiches 
made of feathers bound together in the most fantastic forms, 
which he gave to Mrs. A., telling her to burn them in the fire, and 
to watch the chambermaid carefully, saying that as they had 
burned and shrivelled up, so she would shrivel up. The girl, who 
had displayed from the first the most intense uneasiness, was 
listening at the keyhole of an adjoining room, and heard these 
injunctions. With a scream she rushed into the room, and, drop¬ 
ping on her knees at Mrs. A.’s feet, implored her not to burn the 
fetiches, promising, if she would not, to make a clean confession 
of her guilt. 

44 Mrs. A., by this time deeply impressed with the strangeness 
and mystery of the affair, was prevailed upon by the entreaties of 
the girl, and kept the 4 fetiches ’ intact, and the chambermaid 
confessed that she had been prevailed upon by the other 4 hoo¬ 
doo man’ to place these fetiches in the bed of the child. She 
protested she did not know for what reason, and that afterward 
she wished to take them out, but did not dare to do so for fear of 
him. 

44 As soon as the family physician came in, Mrs. A., completely 
bewildered, told him the whole affair, showing him the fetiches, 
and making the girl repeat her story to him. He, being a practi¬ 
cal man, and having withal considerable knowledge of chemistry, 
took the bunches of feathers home with him, and on making a 


INTERIOR VISION. 


159 


chemical examination of them, he found them imbued with a very 
deadly poison. 

“ Meanwhile, he told the affair to two or three neighbors, and 
getting out a warrant for the arrest of the malignant hoodoo man, 
they went to the hut to arrest him. The bird had flown, however, 
and could nowhere be found. Some of the negroes had, no doubt, 
carried word to him, and he had thought it best to clear out from 
that neighborhood. The little patient, relieved from inhaling the 
poison in her pillow and bed, soon got well, and Mrs. A. has now 
in her possession the fetiches which came so near making her a 
childless widow. 

“ It may not be generally known to the public, but it is never¬ 
theless a fact, that these barbarous African superstitions and 
practices prevail, and are increasing among the ‘ freedmen,’ not 
only of Memphis and Tennessee, but of all the Southern States. 

It is the clearest proof of the inevitable tendency of the negro to * 
relapse into barbarism when left to control himself.” 

So much for Voudooism.* I believe this story to be true, for I 
have myself been a victim to the thing, but the “ doctor ” who 
analyzed the stuff, and found “ poison,” is both a cheat and a sham 
to hide his utter ignorance. There was no poison about it. The 
whole thing is purely magnetic, as I can demonstrate at will, for I 
know this thing from end to end, and speak b}^ the card. 

But I have already exceeded my limits, and can only say to 
those who want to know more, that, if they are proper persons, I 
will impart freely all they desire on this most deeply interesting 
point of mystic knowledge. I have now a few words of advice 
for five classes of persons. 

I. To those who mesmerize: Your power depends upon your 
health, cleanliness, non-excitability, firmness of purpose, persist¬ 
ency, volume of lungs, and clearness of mind. To you, there¬ 
fore, I recommend the constant use of the foods, drinks, and 
usages named below, and the avoidance of those in italics ; for all 
articles thus marked are bad for all five classes of persons alluded 
to, and are to be avoided. Things in ordinary print are good, but 
all that are in capitals are superexcellent for the purposes aimed 
at; namely, the attainment of the greatest amount of actual 
power, mental force, nervous vigor, and the capacity of slowness, 
certainty, endurance, and self-command. 


160 


INTERIOR VISION. 


II. All clairvoyants, while developing, must live on the very 
plainest and purest of food. But when they have reached the 
goal, they must remember that anything they do exhausts their 
vital energy, to maintain and rebuild which, they should live as 
well as possible, and partake of the articles enumerated. 

III. All persons who are “ used up,” and exhausted by mental 
labor, sedentary, morbid, excitable, and fagged out. 

IV. All who are tireless, cold, non-attractive, non-attracted, 
uneasj', unsettled, subject to mental, temperamental, gloomy, and 
passional storms; and 

V. All who have half-ruined their mental faculties, drained 
their bodies, sapped their health, and become crooked, angular, 
unreliable, fretful, by passional excess, normal or otherwise , from 
any cause. 

1. Oysters in any form, if not cooked too much. 2. Clams, 
and other shell-fisli. 3. Lobsters. 4. Crabs. 5. Okra. 6. Al- 
monds. 7. Filberts. 8. Peanuts. 9. Cocoanuts. 10. Squash 
and Cabbage. 11. Mace. 12. Ginger. 13. Winter-green. 
14. Parsley. 15. Brocoli. 16. Parsnips. 17. Sage, Marjo- 
rum, and all sweet herbs. 18. Green Tea,' well creamed. 19. 
Mocha Coffee, well sugared and creamed. 20. French Choco¬ 
late, rich, and well-spiced, ranks No. 1. 21. Sirloin, Tender¬ 

loin, and Porter-house Beef-steak, broiled rare. N. B. Nev¬ 
er use black pepper for any purpose whatever; it is a sort of 
cubebs, and destroys amative and generous feelings quickly. 22. 
African Cayenne in all cookery and medicine. 23. Cauliflower, 
Radishes, Mashed Turnips, Cracked Wheat, Green Corn, Beets, 
Pickled Peppers, Lima Beans, Pumpkin, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, 
all excellent. 32. Cinnamon, Cloves, Gum Arabic, Pop-corn, 
Onions. 38. Roast, boiled, broiled Mutton, Lamb, Veal. 39. 
Black Tea , Sham Coffee , Pork in any shape, Gin, Common Alco¬ 
holic Liquors , Ales and Wines, much Vinegav , all, all are very bad. 
47. The lean of all fat meats, Pork excluded. 48. Eels, Shrimps, 
Mushrooms, all scaleless fish, Terrapins, Turtle, Turtle-soup, 
Calves-iiead, all sorts of Jellies, Blanc-mange, Ice Creams, 
Maple Sugar, Loaf Sugar, Syrup of Orange Peel do. and 
better of Lemon Peel ; Orange Pips, Lemon Pips, Seeds of 
Squash, Nut Candy, Rock Candy, Egg-Flip of cider, wine, or 
pure brandy; or, better still, an Eringos made with wine, cream, 


INTERIOR VISION. 


161 


eggs, brandy, and two spoonsful of Phloxine, or, better still, 
Amylle. 72. All rich Puddings, pure Wines, old Cogniac, Prep¬ 
arations of Starch; excluding all Pies , or indigestible Pastry , 
Crullers , and Doughnuts , fatty Beans , Liver , Cod, Haddock, 

Hake , Pollock , and Sturgeon , sad or fresh; also avoid sad &a^- 
wow, smoked meats , Herrings , sort Cider, and sdde /ood. 93. 
Cordials, Oxtail Soup, Plain Cakes, Fruit Cakes, Eggs in any 
shape, raw or cooked, but not cooked too much. Raw Eggs in 
Port, Claret, or Madeira, on rising, followed by a ripe orange, 
Apple, Melon, Grapes, Plums, Dates, Figs, Guava Jelly. 109. 
Prunes, Hock, Champagne, Bottled Ale, Sugar Candy, with 
Cloves, Gum Arabic, and Cinnamon Drops. Fowls of all sorts, 
Wild Game (Ducks especially), Milk, Cream, Custards, Vanilla, 
Potatoes, stewed, but not fried,—eat nothing that’s fried; all „• 

'm 

sweet and ripe fruits. Perfumes, Rich Soups, Sauces, Gravies, 

i i 

and Flavors; Sauce Piquante ; Kidneys, Currants , Black Cur¬ 
rants, Catsup. 133. Rice, Curry. Deep breathing, gymnastic 
exercises early in the day. Thorough daily bath. Thorough Sitz 
bath every night, using a syringe, and never omitting it for a sin¬ 
gle time, while ill. 

These rules are general, not imperative, and their design is to 
secure equable nervous, physical, and mental health, for it is my 
opinion that all clairvoyance that results from morbid states is 
both unsafe, and unreliable ; and that a psj^che vision, the product 
of health and normal processes, may be procured and strengthened, 
even to a degree surpassing any that earth has ever yet seen. 

But it must come of patient trying, and genuine health. 

Virtue is not a m}Th; Death is; but by clairvoyance the bars 
of Death are beaten down, and it opens the gates of Glory, to 
show all doubting souls the light and life beyond. And why die 
till one’s work is done? Is yours? If not, this divine thing will 
enable you to more effectually accomplish it. 

Possession ordereth use. True clairvoyants do not count them¬ 
selves as altogether of this world, for they are in connection with, 
and do the work below of the ethereal peoples of the starry skies. 

By means of this royal road, the true seer or seeress is enabled to 
read the varied scrolls of human life ; frequently to explain the 
real significance of dreams and visions; examine and prescribe 
for those who are sick or ailing in body, soul, mind, heart, allec- 


II 


162 


INTERIOR VISION. 


tions, hope, ambition, love, aspiration, speculation, losses, gains, 
fears and troubles of every character, healing bodies, minds, souls ; 
scanning by real positive mental vision, not merely the secrets of 
a man’s or woman’s' lives and loves, and keeping them as wisdom 
seeds, to grow into good fruitage presently, — but also reaching 
the perfect comprehension of the sublime fact that organization 
determines destinies, — which of course begets charity to the 
neighbor and love to all mankind ; hence it is possible to fore¬ 
tell events that must inevitably come to pass, either in the gen¬ 
eral or special plane of,an individual’s life and experience. There 
are ever-two roads and three choices before every intelligent hu¬ 
man being, and clairvoyance alone is competent to decide which 
is best, for only this magnificent science and power can enable us 
to reach the penetralium. As a Roscicrucian, I know that men 
ever fail and die mainly through feebleness of Will. Clairvoy¬ 
ance will teach the adept how to strengthen it. The Will is one 
of the prime human powers, and it alone has enabled Man to 
achieve the splendid triumphs that mark all the ages. If it sleep, 
or be weak, fitful, or lethargic, the man amounts to a mere cipher. 
If it be strong and normal, there is no obstacle can successfully 
impede its sway. We know that the sick are healed by its 
strength ; that homes are made happy by its power ; that love it¬ 
self comes to man through its divine agency; that woman can 
realize her hopes, in many directions , through its resistless force ; 
that God is Will, and whoso hath it fullest and finest, most re- 
sembleth him ! Steady willing will bring lucidity of vision and of 
soul! By it, also, those who love or would, love may find. Es¬ 
pecially is this true of that large class who seek the occult, and 
strongly desire to reach the cryptic light beneath the floors of the 
waking world, — I mean the sons and daughters of Sorrow, An¬ 
guish, and the Light; the loving, unloved ones of the earth; 
the lonely pilgrims over desert sands ; the heart-reft mariners 
now sailing and surging over the stormy waters of the bitter sea 
of Circumstance, — for these are the God-sent, and they travel 
ever the roughest paths. To all such, Will, and especially 
Clairvoyance, is a boon, a true friend, saying, “ Come unto me, all 
ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will point the road to 
rest! ” 

What a man or woman eats, drinks, is clothed with, inhales, or 


INTERIOR VISION. 


163 


is surrounded by, has a direct effect upon the entire being. What 
shall be partaken of or avoided, in order to purify the person, and 
create the best possible personal conditions? What chemist can 
answer that question? Who among them all can tell the precise 
magnetic, electric, or dynamic state of a man at any given mo¬ 
ment of his life? Not one. But the clear seer can do all that and 
more! What shall be taken or avoided in order to strengthen 
the will? the love nature? the flagging appetites and natural pas¬ 
sions? the entire nature? principle? courage? fortitude? faith? 
persistence? Mental lucidity alone can reply. Nothing is more 
certain than that in certain things you have undertaken, disastrous 
failure has been the result. And why? You cannot tell, but lu¬ 
cidity will enable you to find out, and render you master or mis¬ 
tress of the situation. * There are three things only that we strive 
for in this life, as times go, and these are Love, Money, and Po¬ 
sition (Power), but we often fail in reaching all or either, only 
because we are ignorant of the true road to them, as determined 
by our respective organizations. What but seership can remedy 
all this ? 

Again : It may happen with the best of us that we have forfeited 
love or lost it. That we are stranded midway on the rocks of dis¬ 
trust, jealousy, incompatibility. 

Does passion lie smouldering? Do you love, and find that love 
unreturned? Are you forced to “eat your own heart,” and lan¬ 
guish all your days and nights in hopeless gloom, as I have in 
years gone by? Have meddlers destroyed your peace, broken up 
the dearest and tenderest ties, wrecked you on the hard rocks of 
life’s roughest paths, deserted you, and left you all alone in the 
terrible trial hour? Have you been wrecked on life’s journey, and 
seek dry and solid footing? Do you seek communion with the 
dead, and to know the higher magic of Power? Here is Rhodes, 
and here leap ! Hope ! Persistence ! Is it worth while to know 
' w hat your faults of character are, and how the defect may be rem¬ 
edied ? to know the reasons why you fail in many of your under¬ 
takings? and what will lead you on to success? If man or woman 
hath lost hope, and love and passion are smouldering wrecks, is it 
worth while to know how they may be resurrected from their pre¬ 
mature graves ? All this true clairvoyance will instruct you how 
to accomplish. 


164 


INTERIOR VISION. 


“ Sad, sad, are they who know not love, 

But, far from Passion’s tears and smiles, 

Drift down a moonless sea, and pass 
The silvery coasts of fairy isles. 

(t But sadder they, whose longing lips 
Kiss empty air, and never touch 
The dear warm mouth of those they love, — 

Waiting, wasting, suffering much. 

t{ But, clear as amber, sweet as musk, 

Is life to those whose loves unite! 

. They bask in Allah’s smiles by day, 

And nestle in his heart by night.” 

Thus sang Fatima; thus singeth every true soul. Clairvoyance 
should be cultivated by everybody, and then there would be fewer 
marriage mistakes. 


No curtain hides from view the spheres elysian, 
Save these poor shells of half-transparent dust; 
And all that blinds the spiritual vision 
Is pride, and hate, and lust. 


Clairvoyance points the road that all should travel. But to be 
valuable, it should be healthy. Sydney Smith said a good thing 
when he remarked : — 

“ Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the 
habit will encroach. I once gave a lady two-and-twenty receipts 
against melancholy. One was a bright fire ; another to remember 
all the pleasant things said to and of her; another to keep a box 
of sugar-plums on the chimney-piece, and a kettle simmering on 
the hob. 

“ Never teach false moralit}'. How exquisitely absurd to tell 
girls that beauty is of no value — dress of no use ! Beauty is of 
value; her whole prosperity and happiness in life may often de¬ 
pend on a new gown or a becoming bonnet; and if she has five 
grains of common sense she will find this out. The great thing is 
to teach her their just value, and that there must be something bet¬ 
ter under a bonnet than a pretty face for real happiness. But 
never sacrifice truth. 

u I am convinced that digestion is the great secret of life ; and 


INTERIOR VISION. 


165 


that character, talents, virtues, and qualities are powerfully affect- 
ed by beef, mutton, pie-crust, and rich soups. I have often 
thought that I could feed or starve men into many virtues and 
vices, and affect them more powerfully with the instruments of 
cookery than Timotheus could do formerly with his lyre.” 

The principle applies to clairvoyance (lucidity). Be so health¬ 
ily, or not at all. Self-mesmerization is a very safe and sure road 
if it is a slow process. As a matter of course, every tyro and ex¬ 
perimentalist will not make a grand success, because in too great 
a hurry; nor is it to be expected ; neither will every one skate 
or sing well who tries, until a fair amount of practice shall 
enable them to do so ; that practice necessarily involving many 
failures before the final triumph. Mesmerism, self or foreign, has 
been in use as an educator for hundreds of long ages, as is proved 
by the sculptures and tablets of Ancient Egypt, Syria, Nineveh, 
and Babylon, fashioned by civilized man over forty thousand years 
ago, if there be any truth in the archaeological conclusions of Botta, 
Mariette, Champollion, Lepsius, Rawlings, Leonard Horner, and 
Baron Bunsen; and in those ancient days, magnetism and clair¬ 
voyance, judging from art relics yet remaining, were, as now, used 
practically. Then probabty, as now, a large class of learned men 
affirmed diseases mainly to spring from bad states of the blood and 
organs, totally ignoring what clairvoyance then ? as now, asserted, 
that they were (and are) frequently the result of obsession and 
possession, albeit there is some doubt whether they even distantly 
glimpsed the recently discovered fact, that every disorder bears its 
own signature or means of cure, as plainly as its direct symptoms 
themselves are apparent; that many diseases that have success¬ 
fully baffled medical science are due to magnetic disturbances in 
many instances, — fairly eluding detection until forced to yield 
the secret to clairvoyance ; that still other, and many, diseases can 
only be accounted for on the doctrine of spores, — already herein 
explained; nor, furthermore, were the “learned” ones of that 
day, any more than their brethren or class in our own time, prob¬ 
ably aware, that at least three-fifths of all the evil in the world — 
social, mental, national, religious, physical, and moral, sickness, 
agony, and premature death — sprung and spring from troubles, 
fevers, colds, and acidities in the love departments of our com¬ 
mon human nature, as clairvoyance universally demonstrates be- 


166 


INTERIOR VISION. 


yond all cavil, as it also, and it alone, can indicate the universal 
remedy. 

• Most people are sick because there’s trouble in the love nature , 
and that trouble demoralizes the man or woman, destroys the fam¬ 
ily compact, and, disorganizing the foundations of society, engen¬ 
ders multitudinous hells on earth, and makes crime abound like 
locusts in a plague ! 

No power on earth but true clairvoyance, can either detect the 
causes at work productive of this domestic inharmony, or suggest 
the remedy. 

But what is true clairvoyance? I reply, it is the ability, by 
self-effort or otherwise, to drop beneath the floors of the outer 
world, and come up, as it were, upon the other side. We often see 
what we take to be sparks or flashes of light before us in the 
night; but they are not really what they seem, but are instanta¬ 
neous penetrations of the veil that, pall-like, hangs between this 
outer world of Dark and Cold, and the inner realm of Light and 
Fire, in the midst of which it is embosomed, or, as it were, en¬ 
shrouded ; and true clairvoyance is the lengthened uplifting of that 
heavy pall. It is not the insane raving of obsession, possession, 
or a puling sickly somnambule ! It is not a lure, to win a man or 
woman from correct practices, or their ideas and standard of Virtue, 
— the Latin word for strength ; it is not a trap to bait one’s sen¬ 
ses ; nor the mere ability to make a sort of twilight introspection 
of your own or some one else’s corpus; nor a thing calculated to 
undermine the religious principles of any human being, nor to sap 
one’s moral nature in any wa}^, or to exhaust the strength. But 
it is a rich and very valuable power, whose growth depends upon 
the due observance of the normal laws which underlie it. The 
price of power is obedience to law. If we would be strong, clear- 
seeing, powerful, the rules thereof must be observed ; and the adept 
and acotyte alike be ever conscious that no earthly fame gained, 
or place reached, or wealth accumulated, will, or probably can, 
avail them or any human being, when, passed over the river of 
death, we take our places in the ranks of the vast armies of the 
dead, as they file by the Halls of Destiny, past the gates of God. 
What, then, is clairvoyance? I reply : It is the light which the 
seer reaches sometimes through years of agony ; by wading through 
oceans, as it were, of tears and blood ; it is an interior unfoldment 


4 



INTERIOR VISION. 


167 


of native powers, culminating in somnambulic vision through the 
mesmeric processes, and the comprehension and application of 
the principles that underlie and overflow human nature and the 
phj'Sical universe, together with a knowledge of the principia of the 
vast spirit-sea whereon the worlds of space are cushioned. Thus 
true clairvoyance generally is knowledge resulting from experi 
ment, born of agony, and purified by the baptism of fire. 

It may require a special examination in certain cases to deter¬ 
mine whether the person is best fitted, naturally, for a sympathist, 
or psychometer, mediumship in any one of its thousand phases, 
or for a clairvoyant in any particular degree. To go blindly 
to work is but to waste your time and effort to no purpose what¬ 
ever. If your natural bent, organization, and genius best fit you 
for one particular thing, it were folly to attempt to force yourself 
into another path. 

Never begin a course of experiments unless you intend to carry 
them on to certain success. To begin a course of magnetic ex¬ 
periments, and become tired in a fortnight because you do not suc¬ 
ceed, is absurd. Mesmeric circles are, all things considered, prob¬ 
ably the quickest way to reach practical results in a short time. 

In the attempt to reach clairvoyance, most people are alto¬ 
gether in too great a hurry to reach grand results, and in that haste 
neglect the very means required, permitting the mind to wander all 
over creation, — from the consideration of a miserable love affair of 
no account whatever, to an exploration of the mysteries enshroud¬ 
ing the great nebulae of Orion or Centauri. Now that won’t do. If 
one wants to be able to peruse the life-scroll of others, the first 
thing learned must be the steady fixing of mind and purpose, aim 
and intent upon a smgle point, wholly void of other thought or 
object. The second requirement is, Think the thing closely ; and 
third , will steadily , firmly , to know the correct solution of the 
problem in hand, and then the probabilities are a hundred to ten 
that the vision thereof, or the phantorama of it, will pass before 
you like a vivid dream; or it will flash across your mind with 
resistless conviction of truth. 

Mechanical or magnetic means may be used to facilitate results, 
but never by the opiates or narcotics. Lured by what Cahagnet 
wrote about the use of narcotic agents, and strengthened in the 
hope by what Theophile Gautier, Bayard Taylor, Fitz Hugh 


168 


INTERIOR VISION. 


Ludlow, and various other travellers, wrote regarding the use of 
one, early in the year 1855, I was led to make two experiments ; 
but may God forgive me for so doing. Nothing on earth could 
induce me to repeat them, or to suffer others to do so, for I know no 
possible good, but much of unmitigated evil, can result therefrom. 

In attempting to gain lucidity, I strongly advise purely negmat- 
ic means, either at the hands of a judicious manipulator, or ’b} 7, 
the means indicated herein. A magnetic bandage worn over the 
head, with the polar plates either in the front or back head, or 
covering either temple, may be worn to equalize the currents, and 
induce the slumber. I use them myself, and know scores of oth¬ 
ers who do. They should be made of at least three elements, 
and be kept entirely clean. I think the curved disk form quite 
the best, and concave the best shape. 

***** ******* 

In conclusion let me say that the sole aim I had in view when I 
reconstructed this book, was to repress vice, give light on a much 
misunderstood subject, and unmask the charlatanry of the da}^ on 
the subjects of this volume. I have been especially severe on 
abortionists, because my meals were, for a year, prepared by the 
hands of a fiend, in woman-shape, who not only frequently boasted 
that foolish women “ offered her twenty-five dollars a head for ” 
the crime, which I believe, she as often accepted, but who once 
gave me a penholder, and boasted that she had destroyed the 
“ illegitimate” fruit of her own womb with it. I have that same 
penholder framed before me as an ever-present reminder of my 
duty to God, the world, and unborn infants, precious in his, if 
not in their parents’ sight. The same wretched disgrace of her 
sex also asked me to bury the half-formed body of a child, — her 
own ? God knows ! but I believe it to be so. When fully satisfied 
that the hand that mixed the bread I ate was stained with murder, 
I left the pestilent house of death, poor as I then was and pen¬ 
niless,— for I had advanced my last dollar to help the fiend 
along in her boarding-house; but though I thus lost the hard-won 
means of living, I preferred to beg or starve rather than daily 
choke and gorge while eating the food from blood-stained hands. 
I might find a plea for a murderess or murderer, frenzied and 
mad from wrong, but I have none whatever for the wilful slayer of 
an innocent, unborn child; especially such as her I allude to, — 


INTERIOR VISION. 


169 


eternally prating of virtue and true love, yet false to the man she 
pretended to give her — gizzard — for heart she had not —to, yet 
all the while openly flaunting in silks won by unnecessary, wholly 
unforced, concubinage, or prostitution, of her own seeking. If I 
were in power a few weeks, I would make examples of such 
wretches upon every tree on Boston Common; and thereafter 
when all of us shall meet beyond the grave, I, as the representa¬ 
tive of the supreme God, would, and will look the fiend in the 
face, and proclaim in her wicked ear, — Demon, you killed 
my child ! and may you exist accused of it forever. As it is, I 
mean to make the place, wherever I can find her, or her class, too 
hot and uncomfortable for a steady residence; and thanks to a 
true man, the time is not far off, when, with abundant means, 
I shall be enabled to champion the cause of Labor, Woman, and 
Human Rights, through the mighty agency of the press; and 
through it, too, I will fearlessly expose fraud and crime and 
wrong wherever I can find and unkennel them. 

The ambition of my life is wholly changed by reason of the 
child-murder thus ruthlessly thrust before mine eyes, and it may 
be, that God, in his providence, devised this means to wake me up 
to the work he hath assigned me in the thickening drama of the 
wondrous age we live in. If so, I thank him that I ever encoun¬ 
tered the fiend. My design and hope is one day to help estab¬ 
lish a refuge for poor women, wherein they shall, free of cant, 
creed or sect, color or nationality, be provided for in the season 
of trial, unquestioned, and being thus removed from the awful 
temptation of foeticide, bring forth their children healthily to, and 
for, God, and this great MAN-wanting world ; and then, when re¬ 
covered, provide, if need be, for the youngling, and repeating the 
sweet words of the dear Jesus, say, “ Let them who are without 
sin cast at thee the first stone.” “ Sister, neither do I condemn 
thee, go thy way and sin no more ! ” 

Is such an ambition a worthy one? I think so. The day of 
power to do this thing is near at hand. The pleasant hope is the 
nursling of long, bitter, and wear}" years. And lo! when all 
seemed darkest, the golden sun shone out bright and fairly, and 
albeit I, like all frail creatures of God’s infinite love and mercy, 
have sinned, yet never once from the heart, ever from the head — 
angular head — which the world will one day forget, but, I hope 


170 


INTERIOR VISION. 


n<3t the soul behind it, and have never fairly made myself under¬ 
stood. It will not always be so, for,— 


Still the world goes round and round, 
And men their courses run; 

But ever the right comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done. 


And, after all, few if any of us want or ask for pity. Justice is 
all that’s needed — stern justice ; and when that is truly accorded, 
there will be found full many an angel where devils only have 
been looked for. I, for one, believe this, and have abounding 
lenity towards all people on God’s earth, except the Slayers of 
the Innocents. 

And now I end my task with a bit of advice, hoping that the 
matter of this book, original and selected, may benefit all. To 
everybody the poet says, and I repeat: — 

“ God gave us hands, —one left, one right; 

The first to help ourselves; —the other 
To stretoh abroad in kindly might, 

And keep along a suffering brother. 

Then if you see a sister fall, 

And bow her head before the weather, 

Assist at once; remove tho thrall, 

And suffer, or grow strong — together! n 


It may chance that you, reader, may have enemies; and if so, 
take my advice — for I have them too, — sap-heads mainly. Go 
straight on, and don’t mind them; if they get in your wa}^, walk 
round them, regardless of their spite. A man or woman who has 
no enemies is seldom good for anything, — is made of that kind of 
material which is so easily worked that every one has a hand in 
it. A sterling character is one who thinks and speaks what she 
or he thinks ; such are sure to have enemies. They are as neces¬ 
sary as fresh air. They keep people alive and active. A cele¬ 
brated character, who was surrounded by enemies, used to remark, 
“ They are sparks which, if you do not blow, will go out of them¬ 
selves.” “Live down prejudice,” was the “iron Duke’s” motto. 
Let this be your feeling while endeavoring to live down the scandal 
of those who are bitter against you; if you stop to dispute, you 


INTERIOR VISION. 


171 


do but as they desire, and open the way for more abuse. Let 
them talk ; there will be a reaction if you perform but your duty, 
and hundreds who were once alienated from you will flock to you 
and acknowledge their error. Keep right on the rough or even 
tenor of your own way. 

Why look back to the past, when you should be gazing forward 
to the future ? why hurry to the old haunts, when you see the 
whole world hastening the other way? A little generous pru¬ 
dence, a little torbearance of one another, and some grains of char¬ 
ity* might win all to join and unite into one general and brotherly 
search after truth; could we but forego this prelatic tradition of 
crowding free consciences and Christian liberties into canons and 
precepts of men, I doubt not, if some great and worthy stranger 
were to come among us, wise to discern the mould and temper of 
a people, and how to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, 
the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and reasons, in pur¬ 
suance of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus 
did, admiring the Roman docility and courage, u If such were my 
Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that could be 
attempted to make a church or a kingdom happy.” Have you 
faith in the great spirit of our mighty people ? Can you discern 
the instinct of its immortal longing? Do you hope to stem the 
tide of its irresistible advance, any more than to take the swallows 
from the sky and stop their flight toward summer? Is it possible 
you can believe that tradition will serve for anything but men’s 
couch dreams, or that the shadows of antiquity will stand for 
the substance of Now? The President, Congress, and Supreme 
Court of to-day are not, do not mean, the same powers of fifty 
years ago. We call our Constitution the same ; but laws vary in 
their effect with the tendencies of their administrators, as com¬ 
pletely as if they were repealed, or altered in their substance. 
Public opinion consigns some to the cobwebs of the obsolete ; 
altered views change their very interpretation. Are you alone 
insensible to the change? If not, be up and stirring with the 
times, — in all affairs, of church, State, politics, labor, love, 
marriage, and the family; for we live in stirring times, when every 
one of us must prove ourselves either pieces or pawns in the chess 
game of life, and to avoid being checked must play wp:ll ! 

In these days of turmoil, climatic changes, political change, aud 


172 


INTERIOR VISION. 


revolution, imposture and true revelation, rampant quacker } 7 and 
blooming science, honesty and villany side by side, people may 
falter and despair of the world and its fortunes; but to do so 
is to distrust God, and doubt his providence, for he has safely 
brought us through so far, and therefore let us truly trust him to 
the end. 

Header, whoever you may be, I beg you to not only read, but study 
well , the glorious meaning of the following sublime jewel from the 
pen of one of Islam’s poets ; for once armed with its philosophy you 
will be impregnable to all assaults, and stand firm amidst the wild¬ 
est tempest: — 


‘“Allah! Allah! ’ cried the sick man, racked with pain the long night through, 
Till with prayer his heart grew tender, till his lips like honey grew. 

But at morning came the tempter; said, ‘ Call louder, child of Pain, 

See if Allah ever hears, or answers, “ Here am again.’ 

Like a stab the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went; 

To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness sent. 

Then before him stands Elias: says, ‘My child, why thus dismayed? 

Dost repent thy former fervor ? Is thy soul of prayer afraid ? ’ 

‘ Ah! ’ he cried, ‘ I’ve called so often; never heard the “ Here am Ij n 
And I thought God will not pity; will not turn on me his eye.’ 

Then the grave Elias answered, ‘ God said, “ Rise, Elias, go 
Speak to him, the sorely tempted; lift him from his gulf of woe. 

Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry; 

That his prayer, “ Come, gracious Allah! ” is ray answer “ Here ak I ! ” ’ 

Every inmost aspiration is God’s angel undefiled; 

And in every * 0 my Father! ’ slumbers deep a ‘ Here, my child! ’ ” 

Women, a last word to you. Perhaps you have a lover or 
husband, and, that being the case, I say, 


If you prize him, let him know it; 
If you love him, show it, show it. 


Respectfully yours, 

The Author. 


231 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass., June 15,1869. 




EXTRAORDINARY AND THRILLING WORK. 


AFTER DEATH; 

—OR,— 

DISEMBODIED MAN. 

The Publishers are happy to announce a New Edition of this Masterly 
Work,—the most thrilling and exhaustive work on the subject ever 
printed. 

Revised, Corrected, and Enlarged. 

Price, $1 25; Postage, 16 cents. 

BOSTON: 

WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 158 WASHINGTON STREET. 

NEW YORK: 

AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 119-121 NASSAU STREET. 

CONTENTS: 

CHAPTER I. 

Are Souls created here ? — Certain very Important Questions. 

CHAPTER II. 

Why is Man Immortal ? — The Reply — Singular Proofs — Invisible Peo¬ 
ple — “ Religion ” the Liver — What is God ? — The Answer — The Exact 
Locality of Hell — White-Blooded People of the Future — An Astounding 
Prophecy. 


CHAPTER III. 

The Rationale of Going Up —Matter’s Immateriality—About the first 
Human Couple —The Origin of Negroes and other Races not Identical — 
The Grand Secret of the Ages Revealed. 

CHAPTER IY. 

Analysis of a Human Spirit and Soul — Why it is Proof against Death — 
Singular Disclosures about the Parts and Organs of a Spirit — The Sex 
Question Settled—Spirits’ Dress and Clothing — The Fashions among 
Them — Do we carry Deformities with us there ? — What they do in Spirit 
Land — The Soul, and its Seat in the Body — Idiots, Thieves, “ Still- 
borns,” Cyprians, Maniacs, Insane, Murderers, Suicides, when in the 
Spirit World — Monstrosities — Why Human Beings resemble Beasts — 
A Curious Revelation — Some Stillborns Immortal — Others not — Why? 
— Consequences of Suicide — Harlots in Spirit Land — Judgment-Day. 

173 


CHAPTER V. 

Are Animals Immortal? —The Absorption-into-God Question Settled — 
Phantomosophy — AW onderful Spirit Power — Its Rationale — Rationale 
of Delirium Tremens — A Singular Fact — How Thoughts are Read — The 
Explanation of Memory — A New Revelation — Genius — A New Faculty 

— Animals of the Spiritual World. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Very Startling Questions and their Answers — Relationship in Heaven 

— The Affinity Question Settled — Is Death Painful? — Death by Hanging 
and Drowning — The Sensations thereof — Effect of Bad Marriages — Fate 
of Duellists, Soldiers, Executioners — Those who Die of Fright or Horror 

— Drunkards — Obsessions — The Fate of Genius, and its Origin — Crime- 
Engendering Dangers — Haunted People and Houses — A Curious Cause 
of Mental Suffering — Music over there — Why do People marry over 
there? — Reply. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Location, Direction, Distance, Formation, and Substance of the Spirit 
Land—A New Planet near the Sun—The Throne of God, its Nature, 
Bulk, and Locality — Location of the Final Home of Spirits—The Origin 
of the first Human Soul — Uncreated Souls—The Rain of World-Souls 
and Soul-Seeds — Location of the Seven Grand Spheres or Zones — 
Length of an Eternity — Our Spirit World Visible on Clear Nights — Its 
Depth and Dimensions — Distance and Substance of the Spiritual World 

— How we go to and from there—Plants and Animals of Spirit Land — 
Scenery about the Spiritual Sun — Boreal and Austral Suns now forming 
at the Poles — Vampyres — Weight of a Spirit. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Spiritual Rivers — Sects in Heaven — Fairy People — The Complexion 
Question in Spirit Life — The Languages used in Spirit Land — Age in 
Spirit Life — The Question of Relationship in Spirit Life — Our Occupa¬ 
tions there — Our Names in Heaven — Number of People in Spirit Life — 
Substance, Food, Drinks, — Curious, Very — “ Free Love ” — Singular. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Heaven of Savages — First Grand Division of the Spirit Land — 
Music there, and how made — Houses, Towns, Cities, in the Upper World 

— How Built, and of what Material — Breath up there — The Female 
Thermometer — Curious, but True — A Wonderful Spiritual Fact — Jewels 
there —Schools in Heaven. 

CHAPTER X 

The Question of Sex and Passion in Spirit Life — An Astounding Dis¬ 
closure Thereanent —Are Children Born in the Upper Land?—New and 
Strange Uses for the Human Organs when we are Dead —The Philosophy 
of Contact — Curious — Still more so — Loves of the Angels. 

174 


CHAPTER XI. 

Certain Organic Functions in the Spirit World—Eating, etc., there — 
Analysis of a Spirit —Its Bones, Organs, etc..—The Actual Existence of 
the Trees of Life and Knowledge — Heaven as seen May 22, 1866 — Insti¬ 
tutions, Employments, and Pleasures of the Upper Land— Description of 
the People there dead 10,000 years ago. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Extent of the Universe — Description of a Heaven — Curious Power of 
a Spirit’s Eye — Animals in Spirit Land —A Palace there — Lectures — 
Studies in Heaven — Soul-Measures — Contents of a Museum there — 
Marriage up there —Love also — Duration of an “Eternal Affinity.” 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Why “Eternal Affinity” is not true —Effect of a Bad Marriage on the 
Victim after Death — How Souls are Incarnated —Why Souls Differ — The 
Second Grand Division of the Spirit Land — Seas, Ports, Vessels, Sailors, 
in Spirit Land — Hunting Scenes there — Phantasmata. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Sectarian Heaven, and the Strange Discussions there — The Mahometan 
Heaven—The Third Grand Division of the Spirit Land — Sanitoria — 
Hospitals for the Sick, and who they are—The Wonderful Herb, Nom- 
moc-Esnes — Its Uses — The Fourth Grand Division of Spirit Land — The 
“ Spheres ” — The Heaven of Half-Men — Fifth Division. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Origin of the Spirit World — The first two Spirits — The Terrific 
Possible Danger of the Destruction of this Earth — An Approach¬ 
ing Change in the Earth’s Axis — A New Planet near the Sun — A 
New Ring about being thrown off from it, and the Formation of other 
Planets by Cometic Condensation — Uprising of a New Continent — De¬ 
struction of the Asteroids — Gold Hills — How the First Spirits discovered 
the Spiritual Land and went to it — The Rev. Charles Hall’s Arrival in 
Spirit Land — His Surprise — The Earth a Living Organism. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Sixth Grand Division of Spirit Land —Things Taught there —The 
Origin of all Matter — The Lost Pleiad Found — A Lightless Sun—The 
Law of Periodicity — Soul-Storms — Credo — A New Revelation of a most 
Astounding Character — The Seventh Grand Division of Morning Land — 
Its Superlative Glories — Will Man lose his Identity in the Godhead? — 
A Mournful, yet Glorious Fact — A Home for all, all breaking, bleeding 
Hearts, all sorrow-laden Souls — A New Revelation concerning Sleep — 
Why a Spirit cannot be Dismembered — Curious — The Coming Man — 
Miscegenation — Soul’s Flight to the Solar Zone and Second Girdle. 

CHAPTERS XVII and XVIII. 

A Philosophical Error corrected — The Law of Love— Practical Re¬ 
sults — Finis. 


175 


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176 


93 



if I 





